
GopyrigME"- 



COEXRIGHT DEFOSm 



SELECTIONS 

1 1"^ 



FROM THB ^C^ ^^ 

SPEECHES AND WRITINGS 



Hon. Thomas L. Clingman, 



NORTH CAROLINA, 



ADDITIONS AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. 



RALEIGH: 

JOHN NICHOLS, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, FAYETTEVILLE STREET. 

1877. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S77, by 

THOMAS L. CLINGMAN, 
in tlie office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington. 



.V) 



^ 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY, 5 

RELIGIOUS AND POPULAR ORATORS 33 

ADDRESS DELIVERED AT DAVIDSON COLLEGE, NORTH CAROLINA, 39 

TPIE GREAT METEOR OF 1860, 53 

HUXLEY, DARWIN AND TYNDALL; OR, THE THEORY OF EVOLU- 
TION, 60 

WATER SPOUTS, .... 68 

VOLCANIC ACTION IN NORTH CAROLINA, 78 

FARMING AND COOKERY, 84 

ANNUAL ADDRESS BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE AGRI- 
CULTURAL SOCIETY, 90 

SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE CHARLOTTE CENTENNIAL, 110 

THE MOUNTAIN REGION OF NORTH CAROLINA: 

Letter to J. S. Skinneh, Esq., 113 

• Letter to the Editor of the Highland Messenger, 116 

Letter from Professor Charles Upham Shepard, 119 

Letter to the North Carolina Land Company, 121 

Extracts from a Letter to William Frazier, Esq., 124 

Climate op Western North Carolina, and its Healthfulness 

FOR Consumptives and Others, 126 

Old Diggings for Mica in Western North Carolina, 130 

Mount Pisgah, North Carolina, 133 

Mountain Scenery, 136 

Guyot's Measurement of the Mountains op Western North Caro- 
lina, 138 

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PARTIES, 148 

MR. CLAY- CAUSES OF HIS DEFEAT, 173 

WILMOT PROVISO, 196 

POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE SLAVE QUESTION, 197 

GENERAL TAYLOR AS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, 226 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND GENERAL TAYLOR, 227 



IV TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



MR. CALHOUN'S UNIONISM, . . 329 

CLAYTON COMPROMISE, 230 

ALARMING AGITATION AS TO SLAVERY, 230 

CORRESPONDENCE WITH FOOTE AND MANGUM, 231 

POSITION OF THE "NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER," 233 

MR. TOOMBS' RESOLUTION IN WHIG CAUCUS, 334 

DEFENCE OF THE SOUTH AGAINST THE AGGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 

OF THE NORTH, 235 

MR. CLAY'S CONVERSATION AND CHARACTERISTICS, 254 

COMPARISON OF CLAY AND WEBSTER, 255 

MR. WEBSTER'S PECULIARITIES, 258 

MR. MANGUM, 259 

PROGRESS OF THE SLAVERY AGITATION, DISCUSSED IN A LETTER 

TO THE "REPUBLIC." 259 

WM. B. SHEPARD'S VIEWS, 264 

NASHVILLE CONVENTION, LETTER ON 268 

HOWELL COBB AND BARNWELL RHETT, 270 

CONTROVERSY OF STEPHENS, TOOMBS AND WEED, 270 

PRESIDENT TAYLOR AND MR. CLAY, 272 

MR. CLAY'S BILL DEFEATED, 273 

COMPROMISE OF 1850 PASSED, 274 

FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT, 275 

UNION PARTY, ATTEMPT TO FORM IT, 287 

DUTIES ON RAILROAD IRON AND COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS, ... 288 

PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST— SCOTT, FILLMORE AND WEBSTER, 308 

STRUGGLE IN WHIG CAUCUS— LETTER TO THE "REPUBLIC," 309 

SCOTT'S NOMINATION— GROUNDS OF OPPOSITION TO HIxM— LETTER 

TO DR. LADSON A. MILLS, 316 

CAUSES OF SCOTT'S DEFEAT STATED, 323 

SLAVERY IN THE TERRITORIES— KANSAS AND NEBRASKA, 334 

SPEECH ON THE SAME, 336 

EXCITEMENT GROWING OUT OF THE KANSAS BILL, AND DINNER 

TO JOHN KERR 353 

AMERICAN OR KNOW NOTHING MOVEMENT, 355 

PUBLIC EXPENNDITURES, 356 

MEDIATION IN THE EASTERN WAR, 363 

FOREIGN POLICY— PANAMA AND BLACK WARRIOR CASES— ADMIN- . 

ISTRATION REFUSES TO ACT, 375 

CRAMPTON'S DISMISSAL, 376 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



BRITISH INTERFERENCE WITH SLAVERY, 377 

GREAT BRITAIN AND EAST INDIAN TORTURES, 379 

BRITISH POLICY IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND CUBA, 391 

SPEECH AGAINST CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY, 409 

SPEECH AGAINST PROTECTIVE TARIFFS, 432 

KANSAS — WALKER, BUCHANAN AND DOUGLAS — CONTEST BE- 
TWEEN THE TWO LATTER, 449 

CONTROVERSY BETWEEN DOUGLAS AND JUDGE BLACK, 450 

JOHN BROWN'S RAID INTO HARPER'S FERRY, 451 

SPEECH AGAINST THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE ANTI- 
SLAVERY PARTY, 451 

CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 484 

SPEECH AGAINST THAT MOVEMENT, 486 

MR. DAVIS' RESOLUTIONS PASSED, 507 

MOTIVES OF THE ACTORS, 507 

BUCHANAN, SLIDELL, DAVIS, 508 

FLOYD'S DISTRIBUTION OF ARMS IN THE SOUTH, 510 

^IMPORTANCE OF THAT MOVEMENT, 512 

DOUGLAS' PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS, 512 

DEBATE ON PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, , 514 

ANDREW JOHNSON, 523 

PRESIDENT BUCHANAN, 526 

GENERAL SCOTT, 527 

SPEECH ON THE STATE OF THE UNION, 528 

BRITISH VIEWS OF THE SITUATION, 550 

LETTERS TO THOMAS, OSBORNE, AND OTHERS, ON THE SITUATION, 553 

DEBATE ON LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL, 556 

WAR POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION, 558 

INCREDULITY ABOUT WAR, 563 

SINGULAR FALLACY, 565 

POPULAR DELUSIONS, 566 

CONCLUSION OF THE SLAVERY DISCUSSION, 568 

SCHEME OF NATIONAL CURRENCY, 574 

LETTER ON THE SAME, 580 

INTERVIEW WITH A " HERALD " CORRESPONDENT, 587 

CAMPAIGN SPEECH AT HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, .... 593 

PUBLIC SPEAKING— HOW IT OUGHT TO BE CONDUCTED, 613 

MODE OF CHOOSING A PRESIDENT, 614 

JOINT RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION, 620 



INTRODUCTION. 



The determination to make this puhlication was brought about by 
frequent calls on me for one or another of the articles embraced in it. 
Sometimes a gentleman has written to me for a copy of an address or 
lecture, which he wished to send to his son in college. Another person 
would ask for an article on a scientific subject, while many sought 
descriptions of portions of the mountainous regions of North Carolina. 
Politicians expressed a desire to have a copy of a particular speech 
which was remembered as having been made in one of the Houses of 
Congress. 

Not being able otherwise to comply with such wishes, I decided to 
put a number of the articles sought for in the form of a book. To 
many of the Congressional speeches I have added explanatory remarks 
that will serve to indicate the condition of affaits which seemed to 
render such a speech necessary. Important facts can thus be made 
known, and additional interest be given to what was said. Earnest 
debates, presenting the prominent points at issue, being a part of the 
res gesta, with proper explanations of the conditions then existing, are 
far more interesting than any subsequent history, prepared as they 
usually are. It was the younger Pitt, I think, who said that he would 
rather have one of Bolingbroke's speeches as delivered than the lost 
books of Livy's great history. 

The most important results are often produced by events known only 
to a few actors concerned in them, which no outsider will ever under- 
stand except through explanations made by those conversant with the 
transactions. 

In making up the political portions of this publication, such matter 
only has been selected as may, in my judgment, throw light on points 
that are still interesting to the public. 



In the selections it will be seen that there has been no effort to sup- 
port any particular theory or line of policy. Nor is there any purpose 
to establish political consistency in the speaker. The only consistency 
worthy of consideration is consistency to a man's convictions. To be 
true to the principles recognized as important, is the only object to be 
desired. 

Mere devotion to party, instead of being a merit, is a reproach to a 
statesman. In fact, no man ever did acquire the character of a states- 
man who was the mere devotee of a party. To assume, for example, 
that because a man in 1840 supported General Harrison as the nominee 
of the Whig party, he was thereby bound to vote for General Scott in 
1852, or for Seward, Giddings or Lincoln in 1860, if thus nominated, 
would be scarcely less absurd than it would be to affirm that because 
the Mississippi river at its source was limpid, it must be equally clear 
at its mouth ; or to insist that a man who was seen planting corn in 
April, was inconsistent because he did not continue planting it in 
December. 

By the general judgment of those who knew him intimately, Mr. 
Clay was regarded as the most public-spirited and patriotic man of 
his time; and yet, I never knew a man who seemed to be more gratified 
by receiving applause, nor who appeared more anxious to win in 
whatever he undertook to accomplish. Nevertheless, whenever the 
public interest seemed to demand it, he did not hesitate to change his 
line of action. Repeatedly, in the course of a few weeks, he would 
modify his position on a most important issue. This, however, was 
always done to obtain what he deemed the greatest good that could be 
accomplished. 

Again, I have often, when an important issue was presented to a 
man, heard him say, "this may be right, but I took ground last year 
against it before my people, and I cannot go for it now." Another 
would oppose it because in some former speech he had expressed a 
different opinion. 

Such men, who were always looking back at their own tracks, struck 
me as being vastly more contemptible than the peacock, that, whilo 
it struts, seems to be gazing admiringly at its own tail. In fact, those 



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individuals who claim that thsy had never been able to discover new 
facts to modify their opinions, are universally regarded as the most 
conceited and stupid of mankind. 

In the explanatory statements and notes which follow, I speak in 
the first person, for two reasons. Insincerity even in what is, perhaps, 
its most harmless form, affectation, is always disgusting to me. It 
is also futile, because subterfuges or stratagems to conceal egotism, 
only serve to render it more conspicuous, as the vanity of the Greek 
philosopher was seen the more plainly through the holes in his coat. 

Again, speaking in the first person is not only more natural, but it 
also makes a narrative clearer and more interesting. No one regards 
Benjamin Franklin as especially vain, because he wrote, for publica- 
tion, a narrative of his life in that style. Sir Samuel Baker's Journey 
up the White Nile is far more interesting than it would have been if 
written as histories usually are. When one speaks of what he saw or 
heard said, he necessarily represents himself as present, and, to some 
extent, a party to the transaction. 

In what I may say, I shall endeavor to avoid repeating anything in 
the line of mere personal commendation or compliment. If, in some 
instances such things should be supposevi to be intimated, it will, I 
think, be found that the purpose of the reference was to present some 
consideration, more or less instructive or interesting in itself, or to 
illustrate the character of some prominent actor. 

With respect to transactions before the late civil war, I feel at liberty 
to speak with as much freedom of the conversations of persons in rela- 
tion to public matters, as I would do with reference to the declara- 
tions of Julius Csesar. The transactions of that period have been 
finished, and are now but the subject of history, and no man has a 
right to complain of references to his course on public questions, pro- 
vided he is fairly represented as he then stood ojc spoke. On the con- 
trary, if he expressed his real opinions, he ought to feel gratified b}'' 
this reproduction and publication. 

Most of what I shall state has either been made public in some 
mode, or is known to persons now living. If there are some excep- 
tions, then those who are personally acquainted with me know that I 



(4) 

will not state as a fact anything, the accuracy of which I have any 
reason to doubt. Strangers will give such weight to my statements as 
they may think proper. 

My purpose is to present important facts that may prove instructive, 
whether they may be deemed advantageous or hurtful to the reputa- 
tions of individuals. If persons who write histories and biographies 
would speak with the same impartiality that the Bible manifests, such 
publications would not only be more truthful than they are, but they 
would be far more instructive. A fair examination or criticism of a 
man's life is much more interesting than a mere eulogy. 

The first of these papers is intended for humanity; the second for 
the young men of the United States; and the third is addressed more 
particularly to the young men of North Carolina. 

The miscellaneous articles which follow are arranged without refer- 
ence to the time of their first publication, but rather in such suc- 
cession as may be most agreeable to the reader. 

The Congressional speeches of course follow in the order of their 
delivery, as that mode is best calculated to give a just idea of the 
current of events. The publication as a whole is presented in the 
hope that it may prove interesting and instructive to the young men 
of the country. 



SCIENCE AND CHRISTIANITY. 



A LECTURE 



DELIVERED IN NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, RALEIGH, AND 

AT OTHER POINTS. 



By T. L. CLU^GMJlN. 



The subject I am now about to present, was striking!}' brought to 
my mind by a casual conversation in a law office in the city of Wash- 
ington. A scientific and highly educated foreigner said that no scien- 
tific man in Europe believed in the truth of the Christian religion, and 
that any such person, by expressing a belief in its divine origin, would 
lose the respect of all men of science in that enlightened part of the 
world. 

After hearing this remark, as I was passing to New York, on the next 
da}', my reflections took the form I am now about to present. To show 
the relations existing between Modern Positive Science and Christi- 
anity, I will present a series of statements and propositions. 

First, let it be supposed than an Esquimaux Indian has been brought 
to the city of New York in mid- winter. Having lived in the Arctic 
regions where no treas grow, he has only seen wood in the form of a 
spar from a ship, and been accustomed to regard it as a thing of the 
highest value. He is, therefore, greatly astonished at the number and 
size of the trees in the parks, and looks with wonder on their great 
trunks and leafless limbs. By one of those mishaps that sometimes 
occur, he is cast into prison, and remains closely immured for a long 
period. 

At length he is released and walks abroad. It is now, however, mid- 
summer, and he is amazed with the change. The trees, all covered 
with the green foliage of the season, present their broad leaves to his 
gaze. Remembering their appearance in winter, the present scene 
seems like the work of magic. 

He soon finds himself in the presence of an intelligent and dignified 
gentleman, a Professor in the University, and thoroughly instructed in 
all the sciences. Attracted by the intelligence and benevolence of his 
countenance, the Indian thus addresses him: 



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"Sir, I am an ignorant Esquimaux, just discharged from prison, and 
am greatly astonished with what I see around me. Will you allow me, 
sir, to ask you a few questions?" 

"Certainly," replies the philosopher, "for I read your singular case 
in the papers this morning, and as it is now vacation in the college in 
which I am a Professor, I have ample leisure." 

"How fortunate I am," exclaims the savage, "in meeting a most 
learned professor, who can explain, without effort, all that perplexes my 
ignorance. When I first saw these trees, in the winter, their limbs were 
all naked, while now they are covered with broad and beautiful green 
leaves. Is this not wonderfully strange?" 

"Not in the least," answers the Professor; " on the contrary, it would 
be strange if they did not have leaves on them, for they are live trees, 
and all live trees put out leaves in the summer." 

" What is a live tree?" says the Esquimaux. 

"Alive tree," replies the Professor, "is one which has a vital prin- 
ciple in it, that causes it to germinate in the spring, and put out young 
branches and leaves." 

" Most learned Professor," exclaims the delighted savage, " what is 
that vital principle that produces such wonders as I behold?" 

" Why, in fact," the Professor answers, " though science explains 
almost everything else, it does not disclose what that vital principle is. 
We only see the effects, but the cause is a hidden mystery." 

" How unfortunate!" exclaims the Indian, with a look of disappoint- 
ment, "that your great science, which explains everything else, should 
have failed in this, which seems the most wonderful of all. There are, 
however, other things which appear very strange, which I beg 
you to explain to me. During my long confinement, in cold weather 
they gave me a fire, and as I gazed on it, I often wondered what fire 
was. Do, my friend, as you can so easily, with the aid of your great 
science, tell me what fire is." 

"Fire," answers the Professor, "is combustion attended with the 
extrication of light and heat." 

"I am so ignorant," says the savage; "kind and learned Professor, 
do tell me what combustion is." 

"Combustion," replies the Professor, "is the union of oxygen, which 
is a supporter of combustion, with the carbon and hydrogen in the fuel." 

" But why does the oxygen unite with the carbon and hydrogen ?" 
says the Esquimaux. 

" That oyxgen unites with these combustibles is a fact which is ob- 
served, but for which no cause can be assigned," answers the Professor. 

"Then at least tell me," says the Indian, " what light and heat are, 
for as these things are extricated, and made manifest, your science can 
easily explain them." 

"Light," replies the Professor, "has been the subject of so much 
investigation that its properties are now well understood. There is an 
exceedingly elastic medium which pervades all space, in which undu- 
lations are excited by the luminous body, which are propagated to the 
eye, and cause the perception of vision." 



(7) 

"How delighted I am," exclaims the poor savage, "to learn this; 
for in my own country when the sun, after so man}' months of dark- 
ness came back to us, and sent a great flood of light over our ices and 
snows, the beauty of its colors reflected on all sides caused me to dance 
for joy, and I thought how much I would give to understand what it 
was that made the scene so glorious. Little did I then hope that I 
should, in a distant land, meet with a great and learned Professor, who 
would explain it all to me. Tell me now what is that elastic medium 
which performs such wonders." 

"Science," answers his companion, "does not tell us what that 
medium is, we only recognize its effects." 

"You cannot tell what it is, you say," answers the Indian; "then 
how do 3-0U know that there is any such medium at all?" 

"We have no positive knowledge of its existence, but as light is 
perceived and must have a cause, we can account for what we observe 
in no other manner than to suppose that there must be a medium of 
the elasticity and properties necessary to cause the effects we perceive." 

Hereupon the Esquimaux burst into a fit of laughter, on recovering 
from which he said: "Do not imagine, most learned Professor, that I 
laughed from any want of respect for you, but because your last 
remark brought to my mind something that happened when I was in 
prison. I had heard for some time a singular noise above my head, 
and I asked the man who waited on my cell, if he could tell me the 
cause of it. ''Yes," said he, "there is something up there making a 
noise." " What is it," I enquired, " is it a man or a dog, or a cat or a rat?" 
" I don't know what it is," he answered, " but I expect there is some- 
thing up there which makes the noise." " But do 3'ou know that there 
is anything up there ?" I said. " No, I don't," he replied, " but if there 
is something up there, it could make a noise." Now I laughed, most 
learned Professor, at the folly of the man who ought merely to have 
said that he did not know the cause of the noise. Your saying that 
you did not know that there was a medium which propagated light, 
but that if there was one possessing certain qualities, it might do it, 
brought, I know not how, into my mind, the conversation I had with 
the silly clown." 

" But as light, like the vital principle in the trees, is not explained 
by science, tell me at least what heat is? for that is so familiar and 
seemingly so near to my feelings, that it will be more easil}' explained." 

The Professor, not without manifesting some signs of impatience, 
answered: " The old philosophers used to speak of heat as one of the 
imponderable elements of nature." 

"Imponderable; that means it has no weight," said the savage, 
"but this only makes it more obscure, for if it had weight, I should 
know one thing about it." 

The Professor proceeded: "Tyndall, in a most profound scientific 
work, has shown that heat is in all cases the equivalent of a certain 
amount of motioiv" 

" Equivalent, 3^ou say, to motion," quickly said the Esquimaux; " ah, 
that reminds me of what I heard this morning as I came along. One 
man asked another what he had been doing last year, and the other 



answered, that his work had been equivalent to five hundred dollars. 
As I came along, I said to myself, did he make ten suits of clothes^ 
worth fifty dolhirs each, or a hundred hats, or did he work on a farm^ 
or at the printing business, and for rry life I could not tell what the 
man had been doing all last year. So that when I am told that heat 
is equivalent to motion, still 1 do hot know what it is.'' 

"The pain I now feel causes me to ask you to explain something else. 
An hour ago, while I was looking at one of thestones with which they 
were paving the street, I carelessly let it slip out of my hand, and it 
instantly went down to my foot with such force that I feel the pain 
even yet. Professor, do tell me what caused the stone to go Vv'ith such 
violence against my foot," 

"That," said the Professor, with a serious look, "was caused by the 
force of gravity." 

"And what is the force of gravity?" said the Indian. 

"It is the attractive force which each particle of matter exerts on 
every other particle, and extends throughout the entire universe, 
keeping every planet and comet in its proper place, and influencing all 
material things." 

\ " It is most wonderful!" exclaims his auditor. "Tell me what that 
attractive force is that is so mighty in its effects." 

" You ask rae," said the Professor, "what it is beyond the power of 
science to answer. The universal fact is perceived, but nothing more 
is, or can be known." 

"Then," sorrowfully responds the savage, " all your great science tells 
me only such things as I can see for myself, but it does not explain what 
I am most anxious to know. When in my own country I felt the warm 
glow of the fire, and saw the brilliant light which the great sun cast 
over the world, I longed to knov/ the cause of these things. Our 
prophets said that the Great Spirit, by his secret but mighty power that 
pervaded all space, caused the results dail}' exhibited. Bat your science 
does not tell me how any of these effects are produced. There must be 
a cause for all these appearances, and as your science shows none, I 
will go back to the ideas of my ignorant barbarism." 

Such is, indeed, all human science! Whatever be the subject it takes 
hold of, before it moves far in one direction its course is arrested, and 
it fails to elucidate what it is most anxious to know. Like a fly in a 
glass jar, in whatever direction it may start, its progress is soon arrested. 

I will now present a second scene for consideration. 

There was, last evening, a great gathering of the worms at a locality 
near us. By worms, I mean such as are found in the moist earth, 
usually called red worms. The meeting was the annual assemblage of 
their Association for the Advancement of Science, and the occasion 
derived unusual interest from its being known that some important 
questions, about which there had long been a difference of opinion, 
were to be discussed and settled. 

The questions were whether certain Englishmen Irtid built of iron a 
ship called the "Great Eastern," six hundred and eighty feet long. 
Secondly, whether the Emperor of Germany could bring together a mil- 
lion of armed men. And thirdly, whether the citizens of the United 



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States had constructed a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, 
more than three thousand miles long. The fact known that these 
questions were to be discussed and settled, attracted an unusually large 
concourse of scientific worms. 

There was an especial desire to hear the views of a certain venerable 
and distinguished philosopher, who had published a work on the uni- 
verse, so learned and comprehensive that it was a common opinion that 
the portion of science which he did not know was, in fact, not wortli 
knowing. He v;as especially noted for his extensive travels, it being 
asserted that he had traveled at least twenty times his own length, and 
therefore, as he was six inches long, he had probably traveled in his life 
not less than one hundred and twenty inches, or ten feet. 

On this occasion he arose only after the debate had already taken a 
wide range, and his exposition of his views was so lucid, and at the 
same time so logical and accurate, that he carried conviction to the 
mind of every hearer. He declared that in all his extensive travels 
he had never seen a ship of any size whatever, and that the existence 
of one so prodigious as the Great Eastern, was not more probable than 
that of the gorgons and hydras, invented by the fertile imaginations 
of the Greeks. 

As to the second question about a million of men, he did not believe 
there had ever been a single man in existence. The jarring of the 
earth over their heads sometimes, which the ignorant believed to be 
caused by the tread of a man above, was doubtless due to an earth- 
quake, while the upturning of immense masses of earth at times, so 
detrimental to many worms, instead of being, as popularly supposed, the 
effect of a plow in the hands of a man, was rather to be attributed to 
some convulsion of nature, not yet understood, but which science 
would, doubtless one of these days, be able to take hold of and explain. 

As to the third proposition, if there were no men, of course no rail- 
road three thousand miles long had ever been built by them. After 
this most convincing and luminous address by the great philosopher, 
it was unanimously decided that the existence of man was as improb- 
able as that of the genii of eastern romance; that all of the proposi- 
tions should be rejected as absurdities, and that any one maintaining 
a different opinion would forfeit the respect of all scientific worms. 

How much was this decision worth as an element in determining 
the truth of the three propositions discussed? I maintain that it ought 
to be considered as of quite as much value in that respect as are the 
teachings of science explained after the manner of the positive phi- 
losophers of the present day, in deciding the questions which I am 
about to present. 

But it will, perhaps, be said that there is no analogy whatever be- 
tween the cases, and that the w-orms could not have any data to rest 
their decision upon. This is admitted, but I merely affirm, that they 
might be able to make greater progress in the pursuit of the facts neces- 
sary in their case, than can the positivists through their systems in ac- 
quiring a knowledge even of the material universe. 

The star Sirius is so near us that it is estimated that its rays of light 
reach the earth in twelve years. If one of these worms were able to 
2 



(10) 

travel two inches in twenty-four hours, he might pass over a distance 
of more than fift}' feet in a year, make one mile in a century, and in 
five hundred thousand years he would have passed over a distance of 
five thousand miles. This distance would carry him to Southampton, 
where I saw the Great Eastern, or even to Berlin, in Germany. 
• But if a man could travel towards Sirius at the rate of one thou- 
sand miles per day, a distance which no man has probably overpassed 
over in twenty-four hours, he would be traveling two hundred mil- 
lions of years before he reached the star, or four hundred times longer 
than the period necessary, to enable ihe worm to complete his journey. 
With respect to the comparative length of their lives, the worm would 
be quite as likely to live one year as the man four hundred, such being 
the proportions between the length of their journeys. 

It may be said, however, that such an obstacle as the Atlantic ocean 
would positively prevent the journey of the worm. This is admitted, 
but a still more formidable one bars the way of the man to the star. 
The worm might make a considerable progress in his journey, but no 
man has ever gotten ten miles from the earth, or probably ever can. 

Herschell discovered stars two thousand times more distant than 
Sirius, and did not regard even this space as indicating the extent of 
the material universe. Even of a body comparatively so near us as 
the sun, the little we know of it, only seem to perplex us. For if as 
the spectrum ahalysis teaches us, the heat there is so great that iron, 
and other like substances, are kept in the condition of incandescent 
gasses, of what materials are the solid body of the sun composed, 
and of what substance and fashion are its iniiabitants formed? For 
when we perceive that here upon the earth a single cubic inch of 
slate has contained more than forty millions of living animals, we 
hesitate to believe that a body more than twelve hundred thousand 
times larger than our whole globe, should be absolutely destitute of 
living beings. 

The worm, too, might possibly by contact with a railroad bar, or by 
touching the side of a ship, learn something of it, but if this star be 
like our sun, as it is generally conceded, then no man could approach 
within a distance of several millions of miles of it without his body 
being converted into gasses by its heat. 

It may be suggested that as man is furnished with organs of vision, 
he possesses a great advantage over the worm. But if man's vision 
gives him so imperfect a knowledge of the material world, how is it to 
be assumed that it can afford him any knowledge of spiritual exis- 
tences? Is he not blind in this respect? 

But it may be objected that if man's senses do not enable him to per- 
ceive spirits, what evidence have we that such exist. This question 
brings me to the third proposition in our progress. 

If man's senses do not positively or directly perceive spirits, how can 
he know that such things are realities ? 

The maintenance of this affirmative proposition is more difficult 
than was the negation of the two preceding ones. 

I believe it can be as fairly and as satisfactorily established as are 
other propositions regarded as certain in philosophical science. 



(11) 

For example, I have a settled belief, a thorough conviction that spir- 
itual beings exist. This feeling seems to be a part of my nature, so 
that I cannot remember its origin. But if this belief were mine alone, 
it would be regarded as an illusion entitled to no more weight than the 
lancy of an insane person. A similar conviction, however, pervades 
the minds of the whole human race. The feeling is not confined to 
the men of mj'' own country, nor even to those of what is called the 
civilized world. All barbarians, all savages, living either in the re- 
motest continental localities, or the least frequented islands of the ocean 
possess the same conviction. The chief difference observed between 
the savage and the civilized man seems to be that the feeling in the 
former is, if not stronger, at least more controling than it is in the 
latter. This conviction of the existence of spiritual beings antedates 
all history, and seems to have influenced the conduct of mankind in 
every age. 

It is idle to say that this is a mere fanc}', for mental conditions are 
as real and their existence may be established by evidence us conclusive 
as are the material objects of which our senses directly take cognizance. 
For example, if a question were raised as to whether a music teacher 
could play a tune, or only make a noise on his violin, if he were to play a 
familiar air in this assembly, most persons here present would be able 
to swear with as much confidence that he had played a tune, as that he 
had held an instrument in his hand. 

In other words, we are convinced that a tune faculty exists in the 
mind. In like manner we know that there are such things as love 
and anger, though our senses do not directly perceive them. But the 
faculty of spirituality, or the belief in the existence of spiritual beings, 
is not less strikingly manifested. 

Superficial writers have said that the belief in the existence of spirits 
was prevalent, because it was early taught to children by nurses and 
others. A nurse in the fable threatens to throw a crying child to th^3 
wolf, but if all nurses habitually did this, is it believed that grown up 
men in countries where it was known that no wolves existed, would 
ever feel such terror as ghostly fear inspires? Nurses speak of these 
things because they feel them strongly, and they impress the minds 
of children because they are in harmony with their natures. 

Though thousands should write of the vanity of love and the folly 
of anger, yet these feelings would continue to be recognized as a part 
of human nature. Education can no more easily eradicate a mental 
faculty, than it could produce one, which nature had not created. If 
the faculty of spirituality did not exist, man would no more have con- 
ceived the idea of spirits than if all mankind were destitute of organs 
of vision, could they ever have entertained the idea of color. 

Spirituality being one of the most important elements of man's na- 
ture, like his other faculties, manifests itself in children. In after life 
these feelings continue in the courageous as well as the timid. The 
bravest soldiers and sailors constitute no exception. It proves nothing 
that these emotions are often suppressed. All men dread the pain 
which wounds produce, but this dread is so subdued that they march 
into battle by the hundred thousand. 



(12) 

There is another condition of the human mind to be considered in 
this connection, viz : thatcjuality which obliges it to assign a cause for 
what it sees. The feeling, or faculty, of causality is one of the strongest 
intellectual conditions of the mind. If I should chance to meet on the 
waj'side a farmer of ordinary intelligence, and our conversation should 
take a scientific turn, I might say to him that the absolutely certain or 
exact sciences, like mathematics, rested on axioms or self-evident pro- 
positions. If I should ask him whether it was not true that the whole 
was equal to all its parts, and that things that were equal to the same 
thing were not necessarily equal to each other, he would, after a mo- 
ment's reflectien, probably admit that these propositions must be true. 

" Then," I might say to him, " do you believe that stone made itself?" 
as I pointed to a water-worn lump of quartz in the road. He would 
instantly reply, " No, that stone never made itself" "Are you as sure 
about that as you are about the truth of the axioms?" "Yes, more 
so," would perhaps be the reply, " for I had to study a little about your 
axioms, but as to that stone I am just as sure it never made itself as I 
am that I see it." 

Every human mind has a conviction that there was a cause for the 
material things it observes, and that the prime cause was some power 
of a nature different from the substances themselves. The conviction 
is universal that matter did not originate itself 

But the positive philosopher says you have no right to assume a 
cause, for you do not know what the cause is, nor have you positive 
evidence of its existence. I reply to liim, "Then on your own princi- 
ples you have no right to assume tliat there is an elastic medium 
through which light is propagated, for you neither know what it is, nor 
do 3'ou perceive its existence." He answers, "Light is apparent, self- 
evident, and it is necessary to account for it that we assume the exis- 
tence of a medium." " I admit this, but if it be necessary to assume 
the existence of an element pervading all space to account for color 
alone, how much greater is the necessity to assign a cause for the exis- 
tence of the whole material creation, which all our senses alike concur 
in perceiving?" 

There is another condition or habit of the mind to be considered in 
this connection, viz: the impression that wdien things have uniformly 
existed together, they will not be found separated. Though this 
conviction is not so palpable as the former one, yet it is of such force 
that men of science base certain laws of uniformity on it. Let us 
measure its strength by comparing it with such testimony as men rely 
on in courts of justice. 

A certain scientific Professor (the same person who had the conver- 
sation with the Esquimaux Indian) went to the fish market and en- 
quired for a fresh shad. " Here is one," says a man at his stall, "taken 
out of the water last night." A bystander exclaims, "Professor, do not 
believe this lying fishmonger, that shad never came out of the water 
at all, it grew on a tree in the Central Park; you ma}'^ there see them 
in great numbers hanging by their tails on the oak trees, and when the 
wind blows they fall off, and this man fills his basket every morning." 
The dealer retorts angrily, "That impudent fellow speaks falsely, Pro- 



(13) 

fessor; though I did not take the fish mj^self I know who did. He is 
an honest man, and rather than have my word disputed, I will induce 
him to go up to the City Hall, and he will there be qualified before the 
commissioner of affidavits, and swear positivel}' that the fish did come 
out of the water." 

"Give yourself no trouble," the amused Professor would say, "for I 
am as well satisfied that this fish came out of the water and did not 
grow on a tree as if ten of the best men in New York had sworn to the 
fact !" 

When the Professor has reached the upper part of the city, he is 
accosted by workmen engaged in leveling the ground. 

" Professor, we have found something very strange here, do tell us 
what it is!" 

The Professor, after examing the object, pronounces it a fossil fish. 
"How can that possibly be Professor, for we found it thirty feet below 
the surface, and have blasted the rock above it. If that was ever a 
fish it must have been before Columbus discovered America." 

" Yes," answers the Professor, "it was millions of years ago." 

" Then, Professor, do you suppose there was any water existing that 
long ago ?" 

" Yes, plenty of it." 

"But how. Professor, can you know that so many years before you 
were born ?" 

" See," said the Professor, " this animal had no legs to walk with, 
and he had no wings to fiy, but he has fins and scales, and I am just 
as well satisfied that he lived in the water as I am that this shad did, 
and I told the man who sold it to me, that I felt quite as sure that it 
liad lived in the water, as if ten men had sworn it." 

" Professor, see he has something like an eye." 

" Certainly," continues the Professor, "he had eyes." 

" Then, Professor, do you suppose that there was any 'light that 
long ago ?" 

" Yes," answered the philosopher, " light existed then, the fish had 
eyes, nature makes nothing in vain, and would not have given it eyes 
without providing light for them." 

Such is the decision of philosophy. It affirms that nature would 
not disappoint the eye of a reptile, or fail to furnish light for its use. 
But, while providing objects to gratify all the wants of the lower 
animals, and giving even to man what all his other faculties and pas- 
sions require, it failed to make any provision for the exercise of strong 
feelings that pervade his nature, and control his actions, from infancy 
to old age, in every clime, and in every condition of his existence! 

Sooner than this, I would adopt the philosophy of the little girl, 
who when the great meteor of July, 1860, was passing across the sky 
and persons were wondering what it was, said: " Mother, perhaps it is 
a great angel flying by !" She possibly had heard that on the morn- 
ing of the resurrection, a mighty angel had descended in the midst of 
a great earthquake, and had rolled away the stone from the sepulchre, 
and sat on it with a countenance like lightning, and raiment white as 



(14) 

snow. If so, the words had fallen on a heart fitted to receive such 
impressions, and it spontaneously made this exclamation. 

Mental and moral emotions produce on the mind of man greater 
impressions than any exhibition of mere material forces, however vast 
they may be. When the Roman poet exclaims, ''''et cuncta terrarum 
suhacta prceter atrocem animuui Oatonis,''' our minds are exalted by the 
contemplation of a great soul, erect and unsubdued, while the whole 
earth bowed before a conqueror — a conqueror, whose fate inspired the 
noble words : 

"Look then abroad through nature, to the range 
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres, 
AVheeling unshaken tlirough the void immense; 
And speak, O man ! does this capacious scene 
With lialf that kindling majesty dilate 
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose* 
Refulgent from tlie stroke of Caesar's fate. 
Amid the crowd of patriots; and his arm 
Aloft extending like eternal Jove, 
Wlien guilt brings down the thunder, called aloud, 
On TuUy's name, and shook his crimson steel. 
And bade the father of his country hail ! 
For lo ! the tyrant prostrate in the dust. 
And Rome again is free ! " 

Grand as are such emotions, they are inferior in depth and strength 
and universality to spiritual and religious enthusiasm. This, called 
into action, overrides all else, and carries the minds of men onward 
with irresistible force. To a king, about to enter into battle, who seeing 
the adverse army suddenly kneeling in prayer before him, exclaims ; 
See! "they yield;" it is answered — 

"Aye; but they bend to higher powers. 
And other pardon sue than ours 
Upon the spot where they have kneeled. 
These men will die or win the field !" 

The conviction that there is a power beyond all the material elements 
around him, which created and controls all things, pervades the mind 
of man universall}^ and is stronger and more palpable than his belief 
in any axiom that science has ever pointed out. It is broader than the 
whole surface of the earth, deeper than its foundations, and higher 
and more enduring than those starry worlds that stud the celestial 
firmament. 

If then science, fairly interpreted, declares the existence of a spir- 
itual cause for the material creation, does it indicate the character and 
purposes of such a being? 

Man looks on the solid globe of the earth, considers its immense 
magnitude, its broad plains, its long mountain chains, rising above 
the clouds, its great rivers and seemingly boundless ocean, its storms 
and volcanoes, and the terrific earthquakes which shake its surface 
into vast fragments ; and then casts his eyes upward to the rolling 
planets and countless suns, which spangle the boundless ethereal space, 



(15) 

and overwhelmed with the impression that the power which created 
all this must be vast beyond his conceptions of magnitude, he pro- 
claims this power omnipotent. 

Again, he sees that this was not the work of power alone, but that 
there has been joined with it intelligence and system. He examines 
a small insect, and while considering its minute structure, is astonished 
to see a manifestation of skill far surpassing the work of any human 
artificer. Then he observes the larger operations of nature, and the 
wonderful order in which they are conducted, not only on the earth, 
but in the motions of the heavenly bodies. The phenomena of nuta- 
tion and the precession of the ecjuinoxes in their long but regular pe- 
riods, the movements of cometar^^ and nebular masses, and the mo- 
tions of the stars, fill him with amazement, and he recognizes the fact 
that infinite wisdom has been combined with omnipotent power. 

What is the third great attribute or quality indicated by the consid- 
eration of these facts? 

Had there been several creative agencies, then the law of Jupiter 
might have difiered from that of Neptune or Pluto, and in the con- 
flict of their several jurisdictions, jarring elements and chaotic condi- 
tions would exist in the border regions. We see, however, not only 
uniformity of law in the earth itself, but when we consider the effect 
of the sun's light and heat on the earth's animal and vegetable inhab- 
itants, and the order of its seasons, we know that the power which 
created the earth also formed the sun and gave uniformity of laws to 
our whole planetary system. 

But far away, immeasurably beyond the limits to which our remotest 
comet goes, the motions of the binary stars show us that in their rev- 
olutions around each other, they are governed by the same law of 
gravity that prevails on the earth. More wonderful and interesting 
still is our perception that the light which comes from the most distant 
stars and nebula%is identical in its character with that which reaches us 
from the sun and other luminous objects near us. It consists of the 
same seven colors, and in like manner is reflected, refracted, dispersed, 
and polarized. It teaches us, too, by the spectrum analysis, that a 
number of the elements in the remotest stars and nebulous masses are 
indentical with those existing in the earth. When, therefore, the 
boundless extent of the law of gravity is considered, and the identity 
of the light and other elements existing in the remotest regions of ob- 
served space is seen, we know that our Creator divides power with 
none, but reigns alone throughout the entire visible creation. 

What is the fourth quality or attribute that science discovers in the 
creative power ? When man considers his own person, he is struck 
with the fitness of his organs to serve his purposes, and administer to 
his wants. Were his eyes located in the soles of his feet, their value 
would be greatly diminished ; if his teeth were set in a row across his 
forehead, they would be useless ; if his beard grew^ on the inside of his 
throat instead of the outside, he would be suffocated early in life. 
When he looks abroad over the earth and sees the provision made for 
his comfortable existence, as well as that of the rest of the animal 
creation, or is struck by the beauty of the landscape before him, the 



(16) 

emerald hues of which are variegated by myriads of vernal flowers, 
or beholds the crimson and gold of its gorgeous sunsets, he cannot fail 
to recognize the fact that benevolence has been manifested by the cre- 
ative power. All nations, whether civilized or barbarous, recognize 
the goodness of their divinities, and from time to time give thanks to 
them. 

In the fifth place I call your attention to anotlier quality, or purpose 
manifested in the condition of the material world. Though the system 
around us is in many respects excellent, yet it is not one of optimism. 
We readily see that it might have been so arranged as to have been 
far better suited to our wants. The human eye is inferior to the owl's 
in the darkness, and to that of the eagle in the sunlight. A grain of 
sand or the point of a thorn may destroy it, and its powers begin to 
fail, while man is in other respects in full vigor. His teeth are liable 
to be broken or worn away. He asks why did not an omnipotent and 
All-wise Creator make my teeth at least as hard as the diamond, 
and as tough as gum elastic, so that they would neither have been 
broken nor worn away? Why does my body fail while my mind is 
vigorous ? 

The answer to these questions is not difficult. 

When I am told that a most skilful architect has erected an edifice, 
and on examining it I find it built of plates of ice, I decide at once, 
that it was intended to be a mere play-thing, to endure only until the 
summer's sun dissolved it. Had he intended it to be a permanent 
edifice, as he is a most skilful worker in granite, he would have used 
that material, having an abundance of the substance on hand. 

So when a philosophic mind considers the physical nature of man, 
and the elements around him, all regarded as the work of an All-wise 
and Omnipotent Creator, it decides that man was placed on this earth 
for a temporary purpose. 

A sixth great consideration forces itself on the mind. To enjoy even 
a temporary existence, effort is necessary on his part. He sees that 
the lillies do not toil, nor the oyster labor for its subsistence, and he 
asks why does not the earth spontaneously bear food for me as abund- 
antly as it does the leaves on the trees? Why do not streams of milk 
and honey and wine flow like water ? Why are the seasons often so 
uncomfortable, and why are not raiment and houses provided ? It is 
a most palpable conclusion that man was placed on the earth to be a 
laborer ! 

In the seventh place man is distinguished by his moral emotions. 
He possesses a sense of right and wrong, what we term conscience, one 
of the deepest feelings of his nature. 

So important is this element in the nature of man that we will pause 
to consider it a moment. A young man, exhausted by a long walk, is 
seen returning home with a gun on his shoulder. His mother perceiving 
his wearied appearance, hastens to meet him at the door with a refresh- 
ing draught, exclaiming: "My son, you look so tired; I have here for 
you to drink what you like best." He replies by presenting his gun 
and discharging it into her breast, and as she falls, looks on to see how 
long it will be before she dies. 



(17) 

Will this strike the human mind as wrong ? Or will the casuist sug- 
gest that tlie perception of wrong rises from the consideration that the 
mother will no longer be able to confer benefits, and that the son will 
thus be a loser? Then we will reverse the picture. 

On arriving at the banks of a stream I observe a mother preparing 
the clothes of the famil.y. Something arrests my attention, and I ex- 
claim to her : *' Madam, your little daughter has fallen into the water, 
but fortunately she has caught hold of an overhanging limb and is 
sustaining her face above the water. You can hear her cries, ' Mother ! 
mother! oh, mother!'" The lady looks in the direction I point, and 
sees her daughter's little hands clinging to the limb she has grasped and 
still keeping lier head above the water. Will the mother say, "This 
child gives me a great deal of trouble; she annoys me night and day ; 
and she puts me to expense, too, for though her feet are very little, yet 
her shoes and stockings cost something. Even if I were to hire some 
one to take care of her, I should have to pay more than fifty dollai"s a 
year. Upon the whole I shall be fortunate to-day if I get rid of her." 
If, instead of speaking thus, she should, with a piercing appeal for help, 
rush into the water at the peril of her own life to save her child, would 
the feeling that she ought to do this be as decided in her mind as her 
belief in the axioms of the mathematician? Will it be denied that 
such emotions are an essential element in man's nature? 

But as I move onward in m}^ journey, I find a little boy of half a 
dozen years of age, with a sister still younger. He sa^'s to me, "Sir, I 
have been trying for a long while by throwing, to get some of those 
apples, but I cannot ; will you please sir, as you can so easily from your 
horse, get one for me and one for my little sister?" I look at him and 
see a coin fastened around his neck by a string. Will I sa}' to him, 
"If you will give me that piece of money, which does you no good, I 
will hand you down the apples?" Or better still, seeing that there is 
no one in sight, and remembering that I am not to return by tliat 
road, I dismount, tear the coin from his neck by force and ride onward, 
will not such an act necessarily strike the human mind as a criminal 
one? But it may be said that there are men in the world who could 
commit such a crime. So there are men born blind, and others who 
by accident or disease have become so ; but does any one deny that 
vision or the faculty of sight is one of the elements of human nature? 
It is not more impossible for the human eye to fail to perceive that 
snow and charcoal are of different colors, -than it is that man should 
not distinguish moral right from wrong. 

Man may destroy his external organs, he may even obliterate some 
of his mental faculties, but a life of vice and crime does not eradicate 
his conscience. With the grasp of an iron hand, it wrings the heart 
and shakes the soul of the dying criminal. 

The emotions which conscience excites are peculiar and readily dis- 
tinguishable from all other sensations. Wiiile these impulses and 
feelings rather seem to draw him along, or impel him to act, con- 
science appears to command, and sits in judgment over all the facul- 
ties. It acts on' the savage with a force as imperative as it does on the 
civilized man. A number of the barbarous tribe of Santal in India, 
3 



(18) 

taken prisoners during an insurrection, were allowed to go free, merely 
on their parole, to a distant spot, to work for wages. After a time 
they were obliged to leave on account of the cholera, but every one of 
these two hundred savages walked back to prison with his earnings, 
rather tlmn break his word. A thousand similar instances mighi, be 
appealed to. 

The violation of conscience gives rise to sensations unlike any of 
our other feelings. If a banker has sustained a serious loss in a 
speculation he is grieved, but should he fraudulently transfer this loss 
to another, with whose funds he had been intrusted, the pain of 
mind subsequently felt, is wholly unlike that of ordinary grief. Even 
when a little child secretly violates its mother's command, though it 
knows discovery impossible, and therefore dreads no punishment, still 
remorse is felt. The sorrow of an innocent man who mourns the 
death of a friend, is as unlike as possible the emotion of the criminal 
who has secretly murdered one. Conscientious feelings are directly 
connected with the sense, or faculty of spirituality. There is ever an 
impression, it may be mysterious and vague, that a spiritual power 
Avill punish wrong. Nothing so utterly unmans one as the sense of 
crime. In the language of the great poet, conscience makes cowards 
of all men. No material barriers seem sufficient by their protecting 
influence to make the criminal feel secure. In spite of walls of stone, 
and bars of iron, awake, he trembles to be alone, asleep, shadows strike 
terror to his soul. Eclipses fill the minds of barbarians with awe, not 
that evil has ever been directly experienced from them, but because 
the}^ are regarded as menaces of a spiritual power. 

On the other hand, nothing animates man with such fortitude as the 
conviction that he is in the right, and the belief that divine power will 
fight on his side. That people, whose courage acquired for them the 
appellation of "the men of iron," appeared to the Greek, Polybius, the 
most superstitious of mankind. And yet he attributed their great- 
ness to tlie fact that they consulted their gods on all occasions, how- 
ever trivial. He declared that the word of a Roman was worth more 
than the bond of ten Greeks with twenty witnesses. 

The sense of accountability to a spiritual being seems to be a part 
of human nature itself, and is usuall}^ connected with the belief that 
this accountability extends beyond the present life. The civilized 
men of our day, the enlightened heathens of antiquity, and all the 
barbarous nations alike manifest the conviction, that there is a future 
state of existence, in which rewards and punishments are to be meted 
out. Among many savage tribes the custom prevails of burying with 
their dead articles of the greatest value, to be used in a future state. 
Sometimes when a chief dies, they slay a number of his attendants, 
that he may in the next life be waited on by those most familiar 
with his wants. 

The old African slaves, imported into this country, had an absolute 
faith that when they died they would return to their native homes in 
Africa. 

The Europeans, who first explored this continent, found the Ameri- 
can Indians possessed of a strong conviction of their immortality, and 



(19) 

of the existence of a spirit land, in which the good were to be rewarded 
and the bad punished. 

While the famished Esquimaux has pictured before him a heaven 
with various platforms, distinguished by the superior quality of the 
viands in the higher stages, the inhabitant of the temperate regions 
sees in the future boundless hunting grounds, filled with game, and 
the resident of the tropics anticipates sensual delights. This very di- 
versity proves that such a belief is not the effect of any cunningly de- 
vised fable, handed down through successive generations, but that it 
is the result of a deeply seated faculty of the heart, which acts directly 
on the intellect, and like the other strong passions, produces in the 
mind images calculated to satisfy its longings. 

If then it be an essential principle of man's nature, the conviction 
that he is accountable for his actions to some spiritual power, both 
here and in a future existence, that power being the omnipotent unity 
indicated, must be the supreme moral Judge of the universe. 

It has been argued that science does not furnish evidence of a per- 
sonal God. When the action of the force of gravity is observed it 
strikes the mind as being an inanimate or dead force. Plants exhibit 
a certain vitality. In animals of the higher order, we observe feeling, 
perception or intelligence, the capacity to judge, and will to direct and 
modify their action in accordance with their desires, fears or passions. 
In addition to these man exhibits high sentiments, moral emotions, 
sense of duty or obligation, directed by conscience, spirituality, devo- 
tion, or reverence for a Deity, and a conviction of accountability to 
Him throughout an immortal existence, which give force and direction 
to his diversified intellectual perceptions. To assume that the Creator 
could give to man all these faculties without being able to possess them 
himself, involves an absurdit}' as great as the human mind can con- 
ceive. Man cannot imagine the existence of these intellectual and 
moral qualities without connecting them with personal existence. 
The conviction is so overwhelmingly strong that no argument or evi- 
dence can add to its force. Nor have men existed in any community 
without regarding their divinities as beings invested with personal 
existence. 

Greater and more imposing than all else is the idea of endkss dura- 
tion, impressed on the mind by the contemplation of the material 
universe. All the objects around us seem perishable, but in fact they 
are only subject to change and never to annihilation. Geological 
science shows us a succession of changes in the earth, requiring for 
their consummation a period of time so great that the mind is 
bewildered when it attempts to look back through the long vista of 
past ages, in a vain search for the beginning of things, and encount- 
ers ideas so vague and shadowy that reason seems to stagger in their 
presence. 

Again, when science shows us that the earth has not grown sensibly 
colder in tv/o thousand years, we ask, how long a period will elapse 
before it loses its vital heat and becomes, what the smaller moon ap- 
pears, a dead planet ? Or may it not be true that its mass is such, 
compared with its surface, that now its radiation retarded by its at- 



( 20 ) 

raosphere, is just equal to the amount of heat that it annually receives 
from the sun? 

The mind is carried forward still in this line of thought, when it 
looks upward to the celestial bodies, and considers their structure and 
movements. A day doubtless seems a long period to the animalcula^, 
which exists only for a few hours. A year is long to a child, while to 
the mind of nian the twenty-five thousand years, in which the equi- 
noxes, in their jirecession make one revolution, seems an immense 
period. But why, science asks, should not these revolutions be con- 
tinued until their numbers are equal to all the past revolutions of our 
earth about the sun ? The sun itself is moving with all its planets 
through space, possibly around some remote centre. In what im- 
mense period will it make one of its circuits, and is it thus to move on 
until its cycles shall have been as numerous as up to the present time 
have been all the earth's diurnal revolutions upon its own axis? 

Seme of the distant nebulae are regarded b,y astronomers as masses 
of cosmical vapor, or star dust, out of which new suns are to be formed. 
How long will it be before these suns are completed with their atten- 
dant planets, and what period must elapse before those planets, at first 
incandescent masses, are sufficiently cooled to become, like our earth, 
habitable worlds ? And are these new suns, with those already crea- 
ted, to move on in their great cycles forever and forever? Philosophic 
science indicates no termination to the material universe. And if it is 
to exist forever, why should not its great Creator be eternal? Is He 
less than the work of His hands? Have we any reason to suppose that 
His power to-day is not as great as it was in the dawn of creation? Vast 
and incom})rehensible as is the idea of eternity, science can point us to 
no other conclusion. 

Are not then these eight attributes and principles fairly and neces- 
sarily deduced from a thoroughly scientific examination of the mate- 
rial vvorld? Can sound philosophy hesitate to accept them as true? 
How then do the doctrines of Christianity harmonize with these de- 
ductions ? From the announcement in the beginning of Genesis, that 
"God said let there be light and there was light," to the closing passa- 
ges of Revelation, the Bible everywhere portrays in the most striking 
and splendid language, the omnipotent power and infinite wisdom of 
the Creator. In comparison, how puerile are the gods of Homer, mag- 
nified as they were by the greatest imagination of all antiquity ? Two 
or three chapters in the book of Job convey to the mind higher ideas 
of omnipotent power and infinite wisdom, than all ever uttered by 
profane writers. Nor is the unity of the Creator less strikingly mani- 
fested throughout the Bible. He ever there stands alone, tolerating no 
rival. His benevolence, or merciful goodness, is proclaimed on every 
page. So too is man's fleeting existence declared, and he is likened 
to the grass that is green to-day, to be consumed to-morrow, to the 
shadow that passes over the earth, and leaves no trace of its existence. 

In the sixth place, we are told that man was especially created to till 
the ground, and after his transgression he was condemned to live by 
the sweat of his brow. This beautiful analogy presents itself too. As 
the good things of this world are not thrust upon man, but he is com- 



(21) 

pelled to labor in order that he may possess and enjoy them, so, will not 
spiritual good be forced upon him. He is told that he must strive to 
enter in at the straight gate; that the violent take the Kingdom of 
Heaven by force; that he must fight against the great adversary, the 
Prince of this world ; and, as men contend for the fading laurels of earth, 
so must he struggle to win a crown undimmed by time or even eter- 
nity itself. 

But if there be one feature of the Bible which may be considered as 
paramount to all others, it is the manner in which the moral law is 
proclaimed. God's perfect justice, His absolute holiness, and man's ac- 
countability for his conduct to Him through time and eternity, are set 
forth in a manner so pre-eminently striking as to indicate this as the 
chief purpose of biblical revelation. 

A most remarkable feature of the Bible is the truthfulness of its pre- 
sentation of human nature. Man in his books ever flatters himself, 
but strip him of the paraphernalia with which his pride and vanity 
invest him, as in times of great trial in sieges and shipwrecks, when 
his inmost nature is made manifest, and the multitude stand out before 
us in the character in which the Old Testament depicts humanity. So 
unlike, too, to all previously written are the gospels, that the}^ extorted 
from Napoleon on the island of St. Helena, the exclamation that their 
divinity was so j)ali)able that it overwhelmed liim. 

To the awe and terror of previous systems the New Testament adds 
the great elements of benevolence, love, humanity, charity. It announ- 
ces a Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, which communes directly 
with the human heart. Though for the first time proclaimed, it is in 
harmony with tlie deep mysterious feeling of man's nature, as shadowed 
forth possibly in such declarations as that of Socrates, the noblest of 
heathen philosophers, who declared that a good spirit directed him 
through life. Thougli this Spirit will not always strive with man, yet 
it returns to him with renewed appeals. 

But the Positive Philosopher asks if it is not unjust that men should 
be punished eternally for such offenses as they commit in this life. 
His philosoph}^ answers this question. Let him look to the material 
world around him, the physical and organic laws of which he prides 
himself on knowing. His arm is crushed oti' and his eyes are put out. 
Will these injuries be permanent? In his anguish he asks, am I thus 
forever to be punished for one thoughtless act,the work of but a single 
moment? "Yes, yes, your arm is gone forever; never, never more will 
your eyes behold the beautiful light." If then the moral law should, in 
like manner, inflict eternal punishment for crimesagainstit, isit notin 
exact harmony with the physical law, the unilbrmity which the phil- 
osopher boasts that he has discovered ? If, however, it could be said to 
him, " Here is a remedy, which will give you back your right hand, 
and restore your sight," with what a bound would he not spring for- 
ward to secure that remedy! No human skill, no law of nature will 
ever restore to him these members. But the Christian system, higher 
than the earthly law, holds out this remedy, through its plan of atone- 
ment, and b}^ contrast with former suffering, man's enjoyment will be 
increased a thousand fold. 



(22) 

It does seem to me that if all the men of science, in grand conven- 
tion assembled, were to proclaim the great principles fairly established 
by the contemplation of the material universe, they could not do it 
more accurately and strikingly than they are presented by Christianity. 

Persons sometimes ask why is it, if the Bible be the AVord of God, 
that certain things are left unexplained and obscure. For every mys- 
tery in the Bible an hundred can be found in nature. Science cannot 
explain electricity or magnetism, or light or heat, or attraction and 
repulsion, or vegetable, or animal life. Man is, perhaps, the greatest 
mystery of all to himself, for he cannot understand how he perceives. 
or feels, or thinks. And yet he will trust his science with its countless 
mysteries, while he proposes to doubt the Bible with its few. 

The positive philosopher assumes to decide not only what the Crea- 
tor has done, but he affirms, witli absolute confidence, that he will not 
act further. His view might be expressed in the proposition that the 
Creator, after completing the universe, died. At least, he asserts, that He 
never will, by direct act, interfere aa:ain with His creation, and that He 
could not, by performing a miracle, so do, without deranging the whole 
system of the universe. Man, a creature so feeble that he is often 
obliged to lean on a crutch for support, or is compelled to swallow 
a drug, to relieve him from pain, and enable him to think; and who, 
in his best condition, is exhausted by a single day's labor ; he, with the 
mechanism of the universe expanded before him, in all its endless ac- 
tion, seeing that the moon does not rest by day or night, that my- 
riads of stars ever dance with exhaustless light, that the sun tires not 
in his course as he marches unchecked and unceasingly across the 
whole space of the heavens ; he would assume to limit omnipotence, 
and set bounds to infinity ! 

So utterly, however, have all the efforts of such philosophers failed 
to shake the faith of the human mind in the continued superinten- 
dence of the Deity over all created things; so absolute is the confi- 
dence of men in the ever present guardianship of His hand, that if 
the sun were but once seen to stagger in his course, all humanity 
would be prostrated in terror. 

There is, however, j^et another remarkable analogy between the 
study of nature and that of the Bible. When man investigates the 
properties of material things, he easily acquires all the knowledge that 
it is most useful to him to possess, with much that is merely interest- 
ing and curious. But when he attempts to dive into the causes of 
things, he is powerless. In like manner when he looks to the Bible to 
learn his duties, they are as manifest to him as is the noonday sun in 
the heavens. But when he seeks to " find out the Almighty to perfec- 
tion," all his powers fail him, and he hears the declaration, "Hitherto 
shall thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud heart be 
stayed." 



RELIGIOUS AND POPULAR ORATORS. 



AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY 
OF THE SOUTH, AUGUST 5, 18T5, AT SEWANEE, TENN. 



By II07-L. T. L. CLTJSTGMJLJ^. 



In no country in the world does public speaking perform so import- 
ant a part as in the United States. It is not only true that our political 
contests, on the result of which depend the action of the government, 
are in a great degree influenced by public discussions, but almost all 
kinds of instruction and information are diffused in this mode. Es- 
4iecially is this true with regard to religious subjects. A majority, 
probably, of our people are dependent on oral addresses mainl}' for the 
knowledge they acquire with regard to religion. 

Hence it is of the utmost consequence that the style of public speak- 
ing should approach as near perfection as possible. While we have 
many fine pulpit as well as popular orators, yet a majority of speakers, 
perhaps, fall below the standard which they ought to attain. Great 
pains are taken to teach men what they should say, but in what man- 
ner they ought to speak, to enable them to make the most decided 
impression on their hearers, is seldom thought of. In this respect, 
many of our public speakers are strikingl}^ deficient. 

When, however, as on this occasion, I propose to consider the defects 
of certain pulpit orators, and the characteristics of popular speakers, it 
may be objected that unless one were free from fault himself, he should 
not venture to criticise others. A man, however, may be able to judge 
whether a suit of clothes fits him, though lie has never constructed a 
garment, and persons who cannot sing are often capable of appreciat- 
ing music. The stone mason and the carpenter observe the effect of 
their blov/s on the material on which they are operating, and in like 
manner public speakers may be benefitted by knowing what impres- 
sions they make on their auditors. Hence, though I may be ever so 
faulty as a speaker, yet the points of objection made may be w^orthy 
of consideration. 



(24) 

Again, Burke says our antagonist is our helper. An enemy, if we 
have one, will be likely to find our weak points, and during my polit- 
ical life I was ever more anxious to read attacks made on me than com- 
mendations. As some of my criticisms will perliaps apply as frequently 
to ministers of the Episcopal Church as others, it may be proper that I 
should state that I am a member of that church, and naturally should 
feel a greater interest in its excellence than in that of any of the o' her 
religious denominations. 

The deficiencies to which I am now about to call your attention 
occur more frequently in written sermons than in such as are de- 
livered ex tempore. The most striking defect is the want of earnestness 
in manner and deLvery. Many years since, at a Methodist quarterly 
meeting, I was struck by the force with which this point was presented 
by one of the preachers. While coir) plaining of the want of earn- 
estness among his brethren, he exclaimed: "Any one of these law- 
yers," pointing to several present, "will, for ten dollars, exhibit before 
the jury, ten times as much zeal for his client as you do in your 
great calling!" No one who compares the earnestness with which 
juries are addressed, with the delivery of many sermons, can fail to be 
impressed with such a remark. The animation of political speakers 
is not less striking. Especially is this to be noted in the cases where 
the candidates for office debate together, and thus struggle for each 
vote. If a candidate in the Southern, and many of the Western States, 
were to speak with no more earnestness and effect than do many cler- 
gymen, the crowd would abandon the stand in fifteen minutes, and he 
would be distanced in the race. I have observed, that in several 
instances, lawyers who became preachers, were very successful pulpit 
orators. The late Dr. Hawks was a shining example. This is per- 
haps chiefly due to the fact that they had at the bar acquired an earn- 
est manner of s[)eaking. 

As the clergyman has the greatest of all subjects to present, and the 
most momentous issue to discuss, how can this defect be remedied? 
In ex tempore speaking, the difficulty is more easily overcome, for one 
who expresses his thoughts as they come up, naturally speaks with 
some animation. But in the delivery of written sermons can the evil 
be corrected ? 

We know that Demosthenes elet^trified the Athenians with speeches 
that had been written and committed to memory. Thousands of other 
speakers have, in like manner, been successful. Whitfield was one of 
the most wonderful orators that ever lived. Some of the play-actors 
who used to listen to him in the streets of London, with a view of 
improving their own elocution, said that he was never heard to the 
greatest advantage, except in one of those sermons that he had de- 
livered an hundred times. When Joseph R. Chandler, then a member 
of Congress from Philadelphia, began to read a speech in the House of 
Representatives, many of the members started to get out of the hall. 
The practice, now so common in both Houses, of members reading 
their speeches, even from printed slips, was unknown, and I doubt if 
six speeches were read during any one Congress of my service, run- 
ning through more than a dozen years. But Mr. Chandler read his 



(25) 

speech with so much force, earnestness and unction, that he soon coni- 
manded the attention of the House, and ever afterwards members, 
instead of fleeing away when he began to lead, collected around him. 

The play-actors, however, furnish us with the best evidence of what 
may be accomplished in this line. Not only do such men as Forrest 
and Booth, for the thousandth time, utter the same sentences with the 
greatest force and earnestness, but the common slock-actors deliver 
their parts with such animation as to interest their auditors. No man 
could earn a living either on the stage or at the bar, who should speak 
in the listless or drowsy manner which we often witness in the pulpit. 

What, then, is the first step to be taken to correct tliis evil? The 
fact must be realized that men should speak to be heard. It is to no 
useful purpose that a man shall, in a low, inanimate tone, repeat to 
himself, or to a f.nv persons, wim njay chance to sit near him, some 
things so well known that they cease to interest him. The most im- 
portant sentence of every sermon is unquestionably the text on which 
it is founded. And yet how often is it delivered in a tone so low that 
the major part of the congregation do not hear it. It is true that after 
the speaker has proceeded for some minutes, bis voice from the effect 
of exercise rises, probablv without his being conscious of it, so that 
most of the congregation can hear him. Every speaker in tlie pulpit 
ought to announce his text, so that it may be heard by the whole con- 
gregation. To insure this, he should fix his eyes for the moment, at 
least, on those who sit most distant from him. When we speak to any 
one, we instinctively give to the voice that pitch which is necessary to 
reach the person addressed. If we do not recognize this fact, we shall 
either strain the voice unnecessarily by over-exertion, or fail to be 
properly heard. 

One of our North Carolina Judges left the bench, and became a 
candidate for office before the people. He had been accustomed to 
charge juries, who sat near him, in a low tone. In his public speeches 
he would often turn his attention to persons quite close to him, and 
thus, though he spoke with sufficient animation, his voice failed to 
reach the greater part of his audience. On my suggesting to him 
that he ought rather to look to the rear of the assembly, he readily 
corrected the defect. To fix one's attention on the most distant audi- 
tors, requires an unnecessary strain of the voice, and it is sufficient to 
speak to those who are two-thirds of the distance to the outer limits. 
It is well, too, that the eye of the speaker should occasionally go to 
every part of the audience, as this influences the pitch of the voice, 
and every auditor perceives, both from the tone and eye of the 
speaker, that he is directly addressed. By thus throwing the voice 
into the different parts of the assembly, it is easy to see the effect pro- 
duced on individuals, and this reacts on the speaker, and stimulates 
him to an extent that greatly increases the effect of the address. 

Some speakers are so irregular in their enunciation, that a part of 
their sentences only, is heard. Nothing is more unsotisfactor}^ to the 
hearer, than to lose sometimes the most im|)ortant words of the sen- 
tenceSh-- It is easy to give due modulation to the tones of the voice, 
without rendering it indistinct. All the great orators I have heard, 
4 



( 26^) 

were able to vary their tones without ceasing to be audible at any time. 
When one speaks naturally to the persons before him, this will usually 
be done unconsciously. 

Clergymen, as a class, suffer from disease of the throat. This has 
been attributed to their much speaking. But lawyers on the circuits 
where I have practiced, frequently do more speaking per week than 
most clergymen do. They usually too, speak with much more vehe- 
mence and loudness of tone, and yet they do not suffer from that 
cause. The difference is, I think, due to the monotony with which 
the clergy speak. They strain their voices by using them in a dull, 
uniform tone. This consideration was brought to my mind by a fact 
which I will mention. For more than twenty years, I had been accus- 
customed to ex tenqjore speaking, often in the open air, some times for 
three hours without cessation, and with sufficient loudness to be heard 
fifty or sixty yards arourd. This was done without any sense of 
fatigue to the voice. Having been invited to deliver an address, 
before an agricultural association, I thought it would be necessary to 
write it, as is usually done. When, after it was written,! attempted to 
read it aloud, before I got half way through, my throat, to my great 
surprise, began to feel pain. When the time came, however, for de- 
livery, abandoning the attempt to follow the language as written, I 
spoke it to the assembly without fatigue. If one will Jtpad with ani- 
mation, entering into the spirit of what he is uttering, he will easilj^ 
modulate his voice naturally, and thus rest it, as the muscles of the 
body are relieved by changing their action, when they have been 
.-trained by continued exertion of one kind. 

Many speakers, too, injure tiieir voices, and soon break down by 
speaking in the throat, instead of the palate or roof of the mouth. 
Stephen A. Douglas, when I first knew him in Congress, used, in his 
vehement style of speaking, to tear his throat very much, often 
becoming quite hoarse. He afterwards improved his method, and spoke 
in a clear, ringing voice, with great ease. This evil practice can easily 
be cured if persons will speak only as they exhale. By throwing the 
voice against the roof of the mouth, and closing the teeth sufficiently, 
it is easy to produce both loudness and distinctness. John Bell, of 
Tennessee, though an able and vehement speaker at times, was very 
faulty in this respect. When in July, 1850, he was speaking in the 
Senate, and panting with excitement and the heat of the season, a word 
uttered as he inhaled was scarcely audible, while the next, given dur- 
ing a violent exhalation, went with a force almost sufficient in seem- 
ing, to cleave the roof of the edifice. Of eminent men, Mr. Wm. H, 
Seward probably had the worst delivery of any one I ever heard. In 
the ordinary parts of his speeches he talked moderately well, but when 
he assumed to be eloquent, he adopted a sort of sing-song, monotonous, 
hollow tone, like a low howl, deca^dng and dying away at the end o 
the sentences, as unnatural as possible. This faulty style I have more 
frequently observed in certain Presbyterian preachers than perhaps in 
any other class of speak ^s. 

Any one may easily, by a few week's practice, learn to speak entirely 
as he exhales, and then by separating his words, so as not to let them 



( 27 ) 

run into each other, and properly marking the distinctive sounds of 
each word, his meaning will be apprehended as far as his voice can be 
heard. Nor will this at all affect the rapidity of speech. On the con- 
trary, Mr. Curran, who formerly managed the reporting of the debates 
for the House of Representatives, told me that a gentleman who 
spoke in this mode so as to be heard distinctly throughout the hall, 
could fill more columns of the Glolje in an hour's speech than any 
member then in the House. 

By giving attention to these points, by endeavoring to enter into 
the meaning and spirit of that which he is uttering, and by fixing 
his attention on his auditors, and attempting to make an impression 
on them, every one may not only cause himself to be well heard, but 
will also be able to interest his audience. 

Let us now consider the peculiarities and characteristics of some of 
the most distinguished orators of the country. I will, in the first place, 
call your attention to two prominent Senators of the same State, 
Daniel Webster and Rufus Choate, of Massachusetts. Among orators 
deservedly eminent, I can recall no more striking contrast than they 
presented. When I first heard Mr. Webster, his voice, though not in 
any sense melodious, was strong, fine and very masculine. At times 
it reminded me somewhat, and pleasantly, of the ringing tone of a 
raven's note at a great distance through the air. During his latter years 
it lost much of its strength and volume, but was always distinct and 
pleasant. In 1848 he made an elaborate speech on the subject of the 
proposed acquisition of territory from Mexico. He differed with his 
colleague, Mr. Davis, had much feeling on the subject, and only spoke 
after thorough preparation. That speech may be remembered as the 
one in which he said, "Politicians are not sunflowers, they do not 
turn on their god when he sets, the same look that they turned when 
he rose." A lady at Washington mentioned to me, that fully two 
weeks before this speech was delivered, he sent to her a note requesting 
the loan of a cop}^ of Moore's Melodies, and that she would mark the 
passage wliere, these verses appeared. This circumstance indicates 
the care with which the speech was prepared. On this occasion he 
spoke with unusual earnestness, and was very impressive. There 
were several of the new members of the House in, listening to Mr. 
Webster for the first time. Towards the close of his speech a member 
from one of the Northwestern States said to me, "What is the matter 
with the old fellow; what makes him so dull?" "Why," I observed, 
"he is to-day speaking with more animation than I ever heard him." 
"My God !" he exclaimed, "if he were to speak to one of our Western 
crowds in that manner, and they did not know who he was, they 
would go off and leave him." 

It was then the custom for certain Western speakers in the House 
to declaim with great vehemence of manner, clenching their fists and 
marching forward and backward with a formidable aspect, and when 
they reached the most eloquent part of the speech, the cravat was 
pulled off with a sudden jerk, the vest unbuttoned and thrown open, 
partly to diminish heat and perspiration, and doubtless also to impress 
the audience with the greatness of the effort being made. To persons 



(28) 

accustomed to such eloquence, it seemed very strange that Mr. Web- 
ster shoukl sometimes speak for several minutes without making 
a gesture. In spite, however, of his usual want of action, he kept the 
attention of his auditors, and his speeches had that most remarkable 
quality, that when one looked back to them, from week to week, they 
seemed to stand out more prominently, and loomed in the distance. 

Mr. Choate presented a most remarkable contrast to Mr. Webster. 
When I first entered Congress I was told this story : Mr. Choate, as a 
member of the House, arose to make his first speech. Ben Hardin, of 
Kentucky, got up from his seat, saying that he had heard enough of 
the declamation of maiden orators, and that he would go out of the 
way until Choate liad finished. As he opened the door to pass out of 
the hall, the singular intonation of the speaker arrested his attention, 
and he paused to listen to one sentence. But he held tlie door open 
till a second sentence was finished, and continued standing thus for 
some minutes, and then returned to his seat and heard the speech 
through. So peculiar were Mr. Choate's intonations, and so nervously 
animated were his looks and gestures that he could, even in a law 
argument, rivet the attention of every person present. 

Early in 1S44, in the Senate, he spoke on tlie Oregon question.. Sev- 
eral Democratic Senators, following in the debate, assailed his speech 
with remarkable vehemence. It was evident that they intended to 
make party capital by attacking Great Britain. Conspicuous among 
them were Messrs. Benton, Silas Wright and Bucharu»n. Though, 
however, denouncing the pretensions, the arrogance and tiie insolence 
of Great Britain, they disclaimed any purpose to go to war with her. 
While these speeches were being made, one evening at a social party, 
on meeting Mr. Choate, I said, "Why has not your speech on the 
Oregon question been published?" He replied, "I have not yet made 
a speech on the Oregon question, but I mean to make one." Soon 
after he delivered probably the finest eff"ort of his Senatorial career. 
After discussing, for perhaps a couple of hours, the merits of the 
question with an earnestness, a beauty and an eloquence seldom 
equaled, he turned his attention to the Senators who had assailed him. 
Quoting in succession the words of each one denouncing the oi)pres- 
sions, the insolence and the arrogance of Great Britain, "but the 
Senator wishes for no war with her," with consummate skill he re])eated 
Marc Antliony's oration over Csesar's body, drawing a parallel between 
each Senator and one of the conspirators. "Great Britain had always 
been our enemy, she was arrogant, domineering, and insolent, but 
the Senator wishes for no war with her." " Here the well beloved 
Brutus stabbed, but Brutus is an honorable man." Another Senator 
quoted, and then the exclamation, "See what a rent the envious Casca 
made, but he, too, is an honorable man." So admirably had Mr. 
Choate prepared the minds of the auditors, that it is difficult to give 
an idea of the eff'ect of these quotations. -As one looked over the 
Senate, it seemed ready to burst into laughter; but, in fact, ever}^ one 
restrained his feelings, lest he might lose some of the speaker's words. 

The effect on the Senators arraigned was not less striking. While 
Mr. Benton strove to throw it off, with an awkwardly put-on air 



(29) 

between indifference and defiance, lsh\ Buciianan hung liis head with 
the sheepish look of one who had been detected in a shallow strataoem. 
After getting through with his adversaries, Mr. Choate drew himself 
up to his full height, with an air of great dignity, and said, " But, Mr. 
President, there is one great and striking difference between Anthony 
and these honorable Senators, and it is due to their high character, as 
well as to the courtesy of the Senate, that I shall state it." As he 
uttered these words in a fine, manly tone of voice, and with an air of 
generous courtesy, the Senators raised themselves up in their seats 
with a countenance and manner which seemed to say, "Well, he has 
hit us rather hard, but he is about to make amends handsomely." 
Mr. Choate said, with striking emphasis, "Anthony was a villain; 
Anthony was a hypocrite; these honorable Senators are perfectly sin- 
cere." Had he swept the chamber with the keen cymeter of Saladin, 
it would seem that heads could not have sunk more suddenly. 

When the speech was concludeci Senator Foster, of Tennesse, and 
George W. Summers, of Virginia, both fine speakers and orators, with 
whom I happened to be standing, began to express their admiration 
most warmly. " If that man," said one of them, "only had the man- 
ner of Clay or Webster or Calhoun, he would universally.be regarded 
as the greatest orator in the world." " I differ with you," I said, " it 
is his fine manner that in a great degree makes him so impressive, 
but his ideas are not in themselves as large as theirs, and are not cal- 
culated to make so great an impression." They, however, reiterated 
their opinions witli much emjjhasis. Some weeks later, on s{»eaking 
to them again, I found that the effect had been greatly diminished. 

Why did the impression of Choate's speeches fade with the lapse of 
time, while Webster's thoughts retained their j^lace in the mind, or 
even seemed to grow larger ? When our feelings are strongly excited 
a mental perception will make an impression, that will be diminished 
as the feeling subsides. How different is the effect made on the mind 
by the songs of Burns or Moore when well sung, from that produced 
by merely reading the words. Choate's speeches were characterized 
by fine thoughts, great earnestness and animation, and such a combi- 
nation of feelings as might be the result of the action of poetry, 
music, and eloquence all joined together. But after these emotions 
passed away, the impression faded as does that of Highland Mary or 
the Last Rose of Sumiuer without the thrilling accompaniment of the 
song. Tliough Patrick Henry, by his impassioned eloquence, com- 
pletely- - ^rried his audience along with its torrent, yet Mr. Jefferson 
said -; "it after he had finished, one could not remember what he had 
said. On the other hand Mr. Webster's speeches were heard with 
little elation of feeling, the thoughts were great and striking in them- 
selves, and being clearly presented to the intellect, in its calm 
moments, they held their place in the mind, and as other things faded 
from the memory, they seemed rather to swell in their proportions. 

I regard Mr. Webster's greatest effort, as that delivered on the 7th 
of March, 1850. No mere report of it will give one an idea of its great- 
ness, without such a knowledge of the circumstances under which it 
was made, as perhaps, none but those, then present, could realize. 



(30) 

Intense anxiety prevailed in Washington in the minds of men of all 
shades of opinion. The shadows of those events, which occurred a 
dozen years later, seemed to oppress the minds of all present. With 
this anxiety, there was a hope that Mr. Webster might solve the diffi- 
culty. 

He spoke to such an audience as never had previously been assem- 
bled in the Senate Chamber. All felt the truthfulness of Senator 
Walker's words, when in moving to postpone the subject on wdiich he 
had the floor, to take up that on which Mr. Webster was to speak, he 
said there was "But one man in America who could have drawn that 
audience together, and he alone could satisfy it. " It was not merely 
that all the sitting and standing room in the Chamber was filled with 
a brilliant throng of ladies and gentlemen, but the distinguished char- 
acter of the persons assembled v.'as most remarkable. Being fortunate 
enough to get a seat on the arm of Mr. Corwin's chair, who kindly 
lent forward to give me room, and thus being quite near the position 
of Mr. Webster, I had a fair view of every countenence, turned as they 
were to the orator. There appeared in every look, anxiety and intense 
earnestness. When he arose, 

" his look 
Drew audience and attention still as night, 
Or Summer's noontide air." 

He had been speaking for nearly an hour on the subject, in general 
terms, before he indicated the position he meant to take. Every look 
retained its intense anxiety of expression, until, at the close of one of 
his sentences, he said in an emphatic manner, "I will not vote for the 
Wilmot." There seemed at once a sense of relief in the audience, 
accompanied by a slight rustling sound caused by the relaxation. He 
proceeded, and fully met the public expectation and hope. It was a 
purely intellectual impression made on the minds of all present, and 
yet the effect was greater than any mere oratory alone could have pro- 
duced. I never witnessed such a sense of relief in the public mind. 
He had drawn from the dark cloud, the lightning which seemed ready 
to burst on the country. But for this effort, we should probably have 
had, with what result cannot now be known — the collision whicl 
occurred a dozen years later. 

Of those resembling Mr. Webster in the largeness and power of their 
thoughts, I can recall no one so remarkable as George McDuffie. I 
once asked Colonel Wm. C. Preston, of South Carolina, whom he 
regarded as the greatest orator he had ever heard. He instantly replied, 
"McDuffie." Of Colonel Preston himself, it is but just that I should 
say, that after hef\ring him under favorable circumstances, I have never 
doubted that he was by far the greatest orator that I ever listened to. His 
thrilling voice, his whole action, suited to his impassioned eloquence, his 
bright and noble sentiments, his wonderful and imposing attitudes, 
placed him far in advance of any orator that I ever knew. When for the 
first time in Rome my eyes fell on that colossal statute of Pompey, the 
base of which was bathed with the blood of the great Dictator as he 
expired under the thrusts of Senatorial daggers, I was instantly 



(31) 

reminded of some of Preston's attitudes. As often as I afterwards looked 
on it, the same impression would strangely come over me. After the 
torrent of Preston's impassioned eloquence was fairly under way, he 
had a complete control over his auditors. When, for example, warmed 
with the vehemence of his action as graceful as it was impetuous, 
he would sometimes, as it were, unconsciously takeoff his wig with his 
left hand, and place it beside him, so as to expose his head entirely 
bald, there was to be seen in the audience no more tendency to smile, 
than when Cliatham, for the third time, pronounced the word " sugar!" 

McDuflie, with the largeness of thought which characterized Web- 
ster's speeches, possessed the earnestness of Choate, and a vehemence 
and force immeasurably superior. The array of his arguments was 
most powerful, and his denunciation of wrong absolutely terrific. He 
had not the poetry of Choate, and lacked the polish of Webster, but 
his massive thoughts, thrown out with tremendous energy, seemed to 
fall among his auditors like thunder bolts. His whole manner was 
that of a man calling into action every faculty he possessed, not to save 
his own life, for a brave man could not plead earnestly for himself 
alone, but as one who was making a dying struggle for the life of his 
country, or for truth itself. It would be interesting for one to compare 
Mr. Webster's speech delivered in the House of Representatives in 1824 
against the tariff, with one of McDuffie's on the same subject, made 
in 1832. 

McDuffie's speech against the removal of the deposits, delivered in 
1834, bears marks of a higher degree of finish and greater polish in its 
language, than most of his efforts show. It is, however, less forcible 
and vehement than some others. 

His great idol, Mr. Calhoun, was wholly unlike him in manner as a 
public speaker. He had as much earnestness, and at times nearly as 
much vehemence, but they seemed to be the result of pure mental and 
nerve force. Like Mr. Webster, he would sometimes stand erect for 
many minutes without a gesture, but when it did come, unlike the 
slow and often languid movement of Mr. Webster, it seemed rather the 
result of an electric thrill through his frame. Instead of Mr. Webster's 
calm, deliberate, and seemingly studied words, Mr. Calhoun's thoughts 
appeared to flow so rapidl}' that he had not time for gesticulation. 
His great propositions followed each other so logically, and so swiftly, 
that his mind seemed to be carried forward with the directness and 
speed of a cannon ball in its flight. As great a metaphysician as Aris- 
totle himself, his propositions were stated with a clearness, a logical 
sequence and a grandeur perhaps scarcely ever equaled. 

Towards the close of his life he spoke more calmly, but always with 
great impressiveness. As he usually addressed not the presiding 
officer, but his fellow-senators, there was a frankness, a dignity and a 
nobloiiess in his bearing, that carried one's mind back to the scenes 
v'en Tully or Julius Caesar stood before a Roman Senate. 

Entirely different from any of these speakers was Henry Clay. 
When in the meridian of his power, his voice was perhaps unequaled. 
Both in the richness and melody of its fine tenor, and in the grandeur 
of its deep bass, it seemed capable of indefinite modulation and expan- 



(32) 

sion. Perhaps the nearest approach to it in excellence and compass, 
that I can call to mind, was that of Gentry, of Tennessee. But 
even his voice, remarkably musical, rich and varied in its tones, 
was scarcely equal to Mr. Clay's in compass; was not so emphatic; 
could not strike with as much force; nor was it capable of so great 
expansion in its deep organ tones. Though Mr. Clay was tall, and 
usually stood very erect, he never seemed stiif, as often Mr. Calhoun 
appeared. His jesture was abundant, easy, ai)propriate, very impres- 
sive, and yet always graceful as well as dignified. He never strove as 
some speakers do, to make an impression by the exhibition of bodily 
force. He was always animated, often impassioned. Whether he 
seemed to be addressing himself wholly and earnestl}' to the presiding 
officer, or threw the glances of his bright blue eyes over the audience, 
by his animated, varied, and earnest tones, and by his graceful and 
sometimes commanding gesticulation, he held the undivided attention 
of his hearers. He appeared like a champion in battle, delivering his 
blow\s right and left, and enlisted the feelings of his auditors on his 
side so completely, that they seemed to regard it as their own fight, 
and were ready to shout over each success won. 

Mr. Clay was perhaps least felicitous when he attempted to utter 
merely handsome things, and make poetical quotations. He did not 
use well such prettinesses as Sargent S. Prentiss would cull from poets 
and novelists, and with them entertain an audience, without ever pro- 
ducing a deep impression on it. Mr. Clay appeared to the greatest 
advantage when repelling personal attacks, or when discussing topics 
directly connected with the honor, the safety, or the liberties of the 
countr3\ His high sense of personal iionor, his dauntless courage, 
and at times haughty daring, with his great public spirit and ardent 
patriotism, rendered him often imposingly grand. 

It wag not the possession of these powers alone, remarkable as they 
were, that made him the greatest parliamentary man in the world. 
He was a good fighter, and could take care of himself in every kind 
of debate. That he was at times as great an actor as Lord Chatham 
himself, will be evident to one who merely reads his eloquent and 
patriotic api>eal to Mr. Van Buren in 1834, to use his influence with 
President Jackson, to induce him to restore the deposits, or, at a later 
period, his description of the interview between the Democratic Sena- 
tors and John Tyler. Those men, whom he could not drive by force, 
he often won by his unrivaled tact and address. He, however, lost 
nothing in the estimation of the country by the occasional exercise 
of these powers, for his [)crfect frankness, high courage, and his public 
spirit, relieved him from'all censure. Such means, when used at times 
to secure great and honorable objects, were viewed merely as we do 
the efforts of a skilful horseman, who to manage a fiery steed, is 
equally ready to use the spur, or to coax the animal. He probably 
concealed as few of his thoughts as any one I ever knew, and no man 
ever lived who was more prompt to repel all that was not alike hone.st, 
honorable and manly. 

So great was his ascendancy over his admirers, and .so boundless 
his popularity, that they were not in the least impaired by his Avant 



(33) 

of success. After his third, and what proved to be his last defeat, as a 
{)residential candidate before the people in 1844, and after having 
been for some years in retirement, he came to Washington in the early 
part of the year 1848, to deliver an address before the Colonization 
Society. The hall of the House of Representatives was granted for the 
occasion, and the time fixed for eight o'clock in the evening. Wishing 
to secure a favorable position for hearing, I went up more than an 
hour before the time when. he was to begin. On entering the capitol 
grounds, I was surprised to see gentlemen and ladies in large numbers 
standing in groups, or strolling through the grounds. I entered the 
rotunda, but found it packed with persons, the passages were so 
crowded that I could not reach the hall, and learned that it had been 
filled early in the afternoon by those anxious to secure seats. It was 
on that occasion that Mr. Crittenden, wdio after years of devotion to 
Mr. Clay, had decided to support General Taylor, said with some 
apparent vexation, that Mr. Clay could bring together larger crowds 
tlian any man in America, and then get the fewest votes out of them. 

If Mr. Clay went to a social party, which he rarely did, the dancing 
was broken up by the pressure of young ladies to shake hands with 
him. Sometimes his presence in a church disturbed the exercises, by 
directing the attention of the congregation to him, instead of the 
preacher. While he thus, perhaps, had more personal friends than 
any man who ever lived, Mr. Calhoun drew to himself a smaller 
number, and held them with liooks of steel. Mr. Webster, notwith- 
standing his fine conversational powers, and great social qualities, did 
not fasten to himself so large a number of personal friends. 

It was sin ^ularthat the ascendancy of these three men should have 
been maint/vined so long in the public mind. Many possessing great 
ability and eloquence came up around them. John M. Clayton, Silas 
Wright, Corwin, Crittenden, Benton and many others there were, who 
would have been pre-eminently great since that time, but no one, in 
their day, rated them with either of the triumvers. 

They were, too, all remarkable for their presence and bearing. They 
had, however, one cotemporary, not less eminent, wdio was in nowise 
the inferior of any one of them in form and carriage. 

In the early part of the year 1835, John Quincy Adams, by the 
appointment of the two Houses of Congress, delivered in the hall of 
the House an oration on the character and services of LaFayette. 
That occasion was well calculated to make a deep impression on the 
memory of youth, fresh from his studies. The area immediately 
around the Speaker's desk was reserved for those not members of the 
House. These great Senators, with such associates as Preston, Man- 
gum, Watkins Leigh, Poindexter and others known to fame, and Vice- 
President Van Buren, at their head, took the places assigned to them. 
The Justices of the Supreme Court, led by their dignified, most 
peculiar, antique-looking Chief, John Marshall, came in. They were 
followed by President Jackson and his Cabinet. As he appeared at a 
distance ecjual to half the breadth of the hall, there was no figure in 
all that vast assemblage so striking. Always imposing in manner 
and appearance, then in an admirably fitting suit of black, his tall 
5 



(34) 

form, the wonderful perfection of his outline, his dignified carriage, 
his entire bearing in movement and mien, rendered him the most 
interesting and remarkable looking personage of all then present. I 
can scarce!}' suppose that Washington, himself, could have been seen 
to more advantage. During the three hours occupied by the address, 
delivered with surprising force and high rhetorical power, with many- 
bursts of great eloquence, he was kept in closer proximity to Messrs. 
Cki}' and Calhoun than he had been for many years. 

There was another scene occurring much later, very different from 
this, but not less impressive, in which two of these personages filled a 
most conspicuous place. In the winter of 1850 and 1851 Jenny Lind 
announced a concert in Washington. Being desirous of hearing her 
under favorable circumstances, I secured a seat near the front of the 
stage. The front seat was, however, reserved for certain distinguished 
persons whose presence was expected. Owing to the fact that several 
of them had been invited to a dinner party by one of the foreign min- 
isters residing in Georgetown, their attendance was delayed, so that 
the room was entirely' filled by a distinguished and highly cultivated 
audience. 

The quiet was at length disturbed by a rustling and stamping of 
feet, and on turning towards the rear I saw that Mr. Crittenden, then 
Attorney' General, had entered the main aisle. The applause indicated 
that some looked to him as the coming man for the Presidency. Blush- 
ing a little, and showing some embarrassment in manner at being thus 
made conspicuous, he advanced to a seat in front. After a pause of a 
few moments, a much more decided movement occurred, and on looking 
to the rear I saw the portly figure of President Fillmore advancing along 
the aisle. His fine form, dressed in good taste, and the easy manner in 
which he acknowledged the greeting extended to him, increased the 
applause, which seemed to say that he was not to be superseded by a 
member of his own Cabinet. Not many moments after he had been 
seated, a thundering demonstration began, surpassing emphatically 
either of the preceding ones. Mr. Webster had entered, just from the 
dinner, in regal garb, with kingly look, but that nature does not now 
bestow such looks on kings. His recent great efforts for his country 
had brought much censure on him at home, and the audience feeling 
this, seemed resolved to make fitting amends. He evidently felt great 
gratification at such a welcome, and moving forward with Mrs. Web- 
ster, a person as a lady not less distinguished in appearance than 
himself, took his position, not among the auditors, but upon the right 
of the platform, and surveyed the hall with a grand and lordly look 
that impressed every beholder. 

There was a brief silence, and then began a still more noisy mani- 
festation in the rear. The thumping was louder, and there were sub- 
dued shouts and cheers, and as I turned I saw the colossal figure of 
Winfield Scott. A powerful combination had been formed to run him 
for the Presidency, and his partisans then present seemed resolved that 
he should not be overshadowed by demonstrations for others. The 
noisiest stamps and the loudest cheers came from patriots, anxious to 
serve their country under so gallant a leader. "Six feet six in his 



(35) 

stockings," in showy plumage, with great elation of countenance, and 
a jaunty step, as he moved down the aisle, the heights of Queens- 
town, Lundy's Lane, Cerro Gordo and Chepultepec seemed to wave 
around him. 

Soon after this, Jenny Lind came forward and sung a song, the 
music of which was almost lost in the surprise at the wonderful power 
and compass of her voice. Slie retired, and for a few moments there 
was a perfect silence. Suddenly a tremendous jarring began. It 
seemed, for a moment, as if the columns in the rear and the galleries 
might be tumbling down together. The tall form of Mr. Clay, in 
beautiful dress, was there. With bright looks, and grafceful bows, and 
waves of his hands he, with imperial air, acknowledged the welcome. 
The applause was extended over the entire hall, was deep, heartfelt 
and universal. It seemed as if the audience, ashamed of its demon- 
strations to lesser favorites, would make amends by turning with 
renewed loyalty to its great idol. 

The feeling was inspired by no idea of reward, no hope of future 
triumph. It was rather akin to those emotions with which we regard 
the memor}^ of Sir William Wallace, or of Kosciusko. They knew 
that he was dying; that his political sun was sinking below the 
horizon; that for him, there would be no returning day; that never 
more would he meet the eager grasp of ardent partisans, sanguine of 
coming triumph ; that never again, in his name, would the banners 
wave over shouting multitudes. A great image was passing, had in 
fact already passed from the American mind, leaving a sadness 
" deeper than the wail above the dead." No one then present per- 
ceived this more clearly, or perhaps felt it so deeply as did Mr. Clay 
himself. 

An incident which occurred a few weeks later, brought vividly to 
my mind this truth. The session closed on the fourth of March, and 
owing to the pressure of Congressional business, I had not seen Mr. 
Clay for many days. Such was his health that it seemed doubtful if 
he would again return to Washington. The Senate was detained by 
some executive business, and was for awhile sitting with open doors, 
during the consideration of a contested election case. Not being 
willing to leave without seeing Mr. Clay, I walked in, and after the 
usual salutation said to him, "I called last evening to see you, but you 
were out." " I am very sorry," he replied, mentioning where he had 
been, " Come this evening — but no," said he, seeming to recollect sud- 
denly, "I am to dine with Sir Henry Bulwer, but you must come and 
see me to-morrow evening." " No," I replied, " I leave in the morning. 
I only called to bid you farewell. I shall be a candidate for re-elec- 
tion, but you know that politics are uncertain things, and we may not 
ireet again. I wish you to know that though I have of late opposed 
some of your measures, the greater part of my life has been devoted 
to the effort to make you President." A wonderful change instantly 
came over his countenance. It seemed as if that remark called up to 
his mind, the images of thousands of friends, who had labored so 
long, so ardently and so vainly for his promotion. The tears fell on 
his flushed cheeks, he covered his eyes with his hands for a moment, 



(36) 

suddenly recovered himself, and taking me by both hands, said in a 
subdued voice, " I know it, my dear fellow, and am very grateful 
for it." 

His disappointment was equally shared by Webster and Calhoun. 
They all, however, had the good fortune to die wdiile their great in- 
tellects were still in their meridian splendor, " before decay's effacing 
fingers '' had robbed them of a single element of strength or gran- 
deur. Mr. Calhoun's last speech ranks among his greatest efforts. 
When it was impressively read by Mr. Mason, in a fine masculine voice, 
as Mr. Calhoun sat by his side, thin, and pale as marble, the gesture 
of his brow, the active and incessant compression of his lips, his rapid 
glances from Senator to Senator,"with an eye as bright as that of 
the wounded eagle, told unmistakably that there was no cloud on his 
intellect, and that his high heart was still unbroken. 

More than an hour passed alone with Mr. Clay, shortly before his 
death, as he lay on. a sofa, because too feeble to sit up, and with a cough 
so distressing that it was almost impossible for him to utter a com- 
plete sentence, showed that while his mind was oppressed by the fore- 
bodings of great evils to the country, his intellect was undimmed 
and the deep current of his patriotism rolled on with undiminished 
volume. 

The Baltimore Convention of that summer had taken away Mr. 
Webster's last chance for the Presidency. Towards the close of 
August, being with him on the last day that lie ever passed in Wash- 
ington, though a shade of sadness rested on him, his intellect never 
appeared more grand, nor did his great heart ever seem to be filled 
with more generous and noble emotions. They have all passed on, 
and joined the throng of the mighty dead, whose actions have made 
the great current of humanity in the past, and the recollections of 
which in the future are to incite their countrymen to the performance 
of deeds of courage and glory. 

As the memories of honored ancestors sustain us against temptation, 
and in the hour of peril, so do the accumulated glories of past ages, 
constitute the moral force of nations. The belief in the Athenian 
mind, that on the day of Marathon the shade of Theseus had marched 
in the van of their countrymen, and by the strokes of his flashing 
sword reddened the waves of the ^gean Sea with the blood of their 
enemies, sustained their banners at Salamis and Platea. A great oath 
sworn by the manes of their heroic ancestors, who had fallen in these 
battles, seemed to Demosthenes the strongest appeal to revive the 
slumbering patriotism of his degenerate countrymen. 

The action of the first Brutus overthrev/ many a tyrant after Tar- 
quin before it culminated on that day, when, in the Roman Senate 
hall, it "made the dagger's edge surpass the conqueror's sword in 
bearing ftime away." The announcement that the victories of Csesar 
were embarked on his frail boat, steadied the trembling hands of tne 
timid pilot amid the waves of a stormy sea. At the foot of the pyra- 
mids in Egypt, to inspire his followers, Napoleon reminded them that 
the deeds of forty centuries looked down on them from the top of those 
monuments. The fact that the old guard had never recoiled in battle. 



I 37) 

bad never failed to carry victory in its charge, caused the exclamation 
at Waterloo, "The guard dies, but does not surrender!" 

Great as is the superiority of a veteran army over one composed of 
only recruits, its condition, if once demoralized, is even more hopeless 
than that of raw levies. So is it with nations. It is almost impossible 
that a people once great, who have become degenerate and corrupt, 
can ever again take a high position. If then, nations, by some fixed 
law of nature, like individuals, have their rise, their progress and 
their decadence, how can the United States attain the greatest vigor, 
the highest excellence, and the most prolonged existence, as a people? 
Shall we rely on our more general education, and greater diffusion of 
literary intelligence? The Greeks, who so easily fell a prey to the 
Roman armies, were much more highly cultivated than were their 
ancestors, who resisted the Persian invasions. It was in the Augustan 
age, when art and literature were at their height, and the empire 
almost boundless in its extent, that the loss of some legions in Ger- 
many caused the Emperor to tremble on the throne of the world. 
His subjects were craven-hearted, because the deeds of Camillus, of 
Scipio, and of Marius, instead of being great present realities, were 
but shadowy traditions, seen dimly tli rough the mists of luxury 
and effeminacy. It was a ruder, a sterner Rome, whose citizens 
reverenced the images of their ancestors, who had known no divorce 
for five hundred years; whose word lacked neither bond nor surety; 
who believed that at the lake Regillus, Castor and Pollux on white 
steeds had ridden, lance in hand, with the ranks of their heroic 
countrymen. This was the Rome that "arrayed her warriors but to 
conquer." 

The sensual teachings of the voluptuous epicurean schools, and the 
derisive skepticism of Lucian, had marched in advance of the barba- 
rian armies, and by destroying both public and private virtue and 
religious faith, as sin opened the gates of the infernal regions, had 
made a broad and easy road for political and national death. 

Already does our young and vigorous republic show such pre- 
monitory signs of demoralization as justly to alarm us for the future. 
We hear, without general condemnation, the startling proposition that 
dishonest men are to be made upright by giving them abundance of 
money; that avarice can easily be gorged and satisfied, and that the 
man who is hired to be honest to-day, will be firm against temp- 
tation to-morrow. Instead of wolves being killed or driven away, 
they are to be rendered harmless by letting them work their will on 
the sheep. 

We find, too, a general disposition in the public mind to excuse 
wrong doers, and extend sympathy to criminals rather than to their 
victims. As an excuse for relaxing the laws, it is asserted that juries 
will not convict if punishment is made severe. But if juries fail to 
do their duty, it is because they have been misled by a mistaken press, 
and a vicious public opinion, that inculcate the doctrine that it is 
barbarous to punish men for crimes. The tolerance is even more 
striking with respect to those acts that are not accompanied with 
violence. Such crimes, however, being usually deliberate, indicate a 



(38) 

higher degree of moral guilt, and are more corrupting in their ten- 
dencies. Open murders and highway robberies are less seductive as 
examples to young minds, than are successful and lucrative frauds. 

When the public and private morals of a nation are in the best 
condition, indignation is felt towards criminals, and punishment is 
made adequate. The old English Judge was, perhaps, not far out of 
the way when he denied the claim of the French to be greater than 
his own countrymen, and asserted that England was unquestionably 
superior, because more men were hanged in England in one month 
than in a whole year in France. Lord Chatham while commending 
the steel-clad barons of the olden times, declared that he would not 
give three words of their barbarous Latin for all the classics of the 
silken barons of his day. 

There is with us at present, not only a relaxation of morals, but the 
very tendency of public discussions as often conducted, seems calcu- 
lated to lower the tone of the community. Demagogues attempt to 
palm off on the ignorant portion of their audiences, buffoonery for 
wit, and by coarse images win the applause of those whom Shake- 
speare has denominated "barren spectators." They forget that the 
effect of such counterfeit eloquence is easily removed by the next 
clown who may chance to come along. Even when public positions 
are thus won, the officer frequently derives as little credit from his 
success as the public does advantage. Though ^Esop's ape, by his 
antics, carried the day against the fox, and became king of the beasts, 
yet his reign was neither felicitous to himself nor honorable to his 
subjects. It is little less discreditable to an officer to disgust the public 
by his incompetence, than it is for him to be ejected for official 
corruption. 

When, too, the compensation of members of Congress v/as only one- 
fifth of what it has since been made, there were no charges of bribery 
against them. As all the great men I have named served at the low 
rate of compensation, it is idle to pretend that competent men can only 
be obtained by large salaries. By offering money as the inducement, 
you catch the avaricious and the greedy. How, then, are we to resist 
the downward tendency? A mere profession of Christianity will not 
avail, for the modern Italians do not present us with such examples of 
heroic fortitude as did the early martyrs. Education undoubtedly 
shapes the human mind, but all educations are not alike. It required 
as severe training to render the Spartan content with his black broth, 
or to induce theMohawk Indian to travel for weeks on parched corn, 
as it does in our day to make the finished opera dancer, or the volup- 
tuous fop who imagines himself the perfection of humanity. 

When the youth of the country are trained to consider wealth, 
luxury and refinement as the chief objects of man's existence, are we 
to be astonished that they do not present us with examples of heroic 
self-denial and noble patriotism? "Do men gather grapes of thorns 
or figs of thistles?" When tares are industriously sown, can the hus- 
bandtnan expect an abundant crop of wheat? 

While considering the subject of popular oratory, it is well to remind 
the young men of the country that those minds that are capable of 



( 39 ) 

retaining impressions permanently, are not to be carried away by mere 
buffoonery, and recitals from the jest book. The men who are to con- 
trol the destinies of tlie country are chiefly to be influenced by appeals 
to their intelligence and higher moral feelings. Religious moven:ients 
are impelled by such earnest advocates as Peter the Hermit, Luther, 
Knox and Wesle}' ; Senates are controlled by the grand eloquence of a 
Demosthenes, and the lofty a|)peals of a Chatham. Revolutions are 
inaugurated and driven forward by the fiery enthusiasm of a Henry 
or a Mirabeau. Those in our day who seek to advance the welfare of 
the country and to acquire honor for themselves must select these 
high models for their imitation. With a purpose to aid such aspira- 
tions, I have presented for your consideration the great triumvirate, 
who sought not power by shedding the blood of their countrymen, but 
only to occupy the domain of intellect, of eloquence, and of patriotism. 



ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT DAVIDSON C0LLEC4E, NORTH CAROLINA, 

JUNE 25, 1873. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



Gentlemen of the Philanthropic and Eumenian Societies : 

When attempting a compliance with the invitation given me, I am 
not insensible to the difficulties of the undertaking. Many such views 
and suggestions as are, at the same time, truthful and appropriate to 
an occasion like this, have doubtless been presented by previous speak- 
ers. By going out into tlie boundless fields of error and fallacy, one 
might easily find novelty. Perhaps the utmost that could be hoped 
for, would be to present just considerations in such a manner as to 
render them interesting and impressive. Even if, therefore, I should 
unintentionally repeat something that had already been said by 
another, your time might not be entirely misspent. The agriculturist 
finds that it is not sufficient for him to have gone once only over his 
ground, but that constant effort is necessary to keep in subjection the 
rebellious forces of nature. So in the intellectual and moral world, to 
combat adverse influences, true views must be presented and urged 
from time to time. Unless this be done, the most important facts and 
principles pass from the human mind. 

The effect of sound teaching is, in part, to anticipate experience. If 
wisdom herself were to speak to-day, you would not, perhaps, be wil- 
ling to adopt her views. But as a student, who has carefully read the 
proper books, will by practice rapidly acquire knowledge necessary to 
make him a first-rate -lawyer, so if sound theories are clearly and for- 



# 



(40) 

cibly presented to you, the consideration of not many facts will be suf- 
ficient to bring your minds to a just conclusion. When a law in 
mechanics, or chemistry, is stated, a few trials arc sufficient to estab- 
lish its truth, and you are relieved from the necessity of groj)ing in 
the dark through a multitude of experiments. 

In some of the past ages, the mind of man seems to have been 
regarded as an empty vessel, into which one thing might be put as 
easily as another. In the monkish period, even if natural propensities 
and faculties were recognized, it was supposed that they might be 
eradicated or entirely suppressed We should, in fact, destroy a young 
vine by striving to ])ress it back into the earth, but its course and form 
may be easily modihcd and directed. Instead of the paradox of Bacon, 
that "you can only govern nature by obeying her laws," I would say, 
that we only derive advantage from the natural laws when we act 
in accordance with them. 

Our present systems of education are still faulty in this respect: that 
they do not suHicienlly recognize the diversities of the human consti- 
tution and intellect. The most stupid wagoner knows that if he 
bestows as many blows with his whip on the spirited horse as he does 
on the sluggish one, the finer animal will be destroyed. In like man- 
ner, if the boy of quick intellect and nervous excitability is stimulated, 
instead of being restrained, from the over exercise of his mental facul- 
ties, he is liable to be broken down early in life. Many a youth of 
genius is thus utterly ruined for tlie want of as much knowledge of hi.s 
bodily and mental organization as a month's proper study would give 
him. The same amount of labor which invigorated the robust con- 
stitution of Benjamin Franklin, would have destroyed Lord Bacon 
early in life. Many a young man, after he has sustained irreparable 
injury, learns, but too late, that which, if earlier known, would have 
saved him from ruin. 

But young gentlemen, you who now stand, as it were, on the thres- 
hold of active life, and, like the trained courser, are eagerly waiting 
the tap of the drum that you may start away on the career which lies 
before you, I know your thoughts and feelings. You desire to attain 
the greatest good, to secure to yourself the largest share of human 
ha[)i)iiie.ss. Diverse as may bo the objects you seek, they are chosen 
upon the supposition that they are capable of furnisliing what you 
desire. You perhaps believe that there is some one thing, which, if 
attained, will make you happy. The sooner you dismiss such an illu- 
sion, the less your disappointment. 

Those who, after acquiring great wealth by their own efforts, have 
sought merely to enjoy it, avow their complete disaj)pointment, and 
are usually obliged to re-embark in business. Several wealthy young- 
men, whom I knew in college, afterwards assured me that they would 
gladly give away all their |)roperty, if by so doing they could acquire 
the capacity for cheerful labor that some others possessed. If man's 
faculties were as limited as are those of the swine, wealth alone would 
give him all the hapi)iness of which his nature was capable; but be 
assured that there is no one thing which can of itself render man 
happy. The only enjoyment we are capable of is that resulting from 



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the exercise of some of our faculties. Recall, if you please, every sen- 
sation of pleasure you have ever experienced, and you will find it was 
the result of the exercise of some bodily or mental power. Sometimes 
it is delightful to use the muscles in walking, dancing, or the canter 
of a spirited horse. Music, intellectual perceptions, theatrical repre- 
sentations and novel reading, by calling into action, successively, 
various faculties, furnish us a large number of our most agreeable 
emotions. The gratification of our animal passions and tastes, and 
the exercise of the domestic affections, give us many of our greatest 
enjoyments. There can be no pleasure to humanity except from such 
sources. 

But again, every one of these faculties may be so fatigued by con- 
tinued exertion, that painful sensations will result. If over-work has 
been long continued, and the pain has become great, then rest alone 
gives high pleasure. Every one knows how delightful it is after a 
fatiguing walk, merely to lie down. But the most important law of 
all in this connection, is usually lost sight of. There can be no high 
degree of happiness without previous want. If a man were to resolve 
that he would live merely for the pleasure of eating, what ought he 
to do? If he remained at home and ate the finest viands as often as 
his appetite could bear them, he would find little enjoyment. Clearly 
it would be of advantage to him to fast for a season. When one has 
for a time been deprived of food, he will experience more real pleasure 
from a single meal than he would from a month's regular feeding. 
The traveler, the hunter, the fisherman, all by their experience, will 
confirm this truth. How delightful it is, when one has been long 
suffering from thirst, to take a draught of pure water! You will 
readily admit that it is true that our animal appetites are easily 
gorged, but a similar law operates with respect to all our faculties. 
The finest concert, if indefinitely continued, would become painful. 
To enjoy greatly the comforts of home, one must have been absent for 
a time. The sublimity of Milton, and the wit of Hudibras, fatigue us 
by long continuance. 

The law seems to be that we can only derive enjoyment by the alter- 
nate exercise and rest of the several faculties. If you desire a high 
degree of pleasure, you must abstain for a long period. Should you, 
on the contrary, be satisfied with a low stage of happiness, a sort of 
vegetable existence, then you may continually call on your faculties. 
The bow, perpetually bent, expands with little force, and every one 
may, therefore, decide for himself whether he will take a high enjoy- 
ment, with great exertion, or be content with a low state of pleasure, 
obtained by a languid existence. 

But again, all the human faculties must be exercised to insure a 
healthy condition of the system. If any one piece in the complicated 
machinery of a steam engine should give way, mischief results, because 
there is no part of the engine that is not necessary to its successful 
working. In like manner, there are no useless organs in the human 
body, or faculties in the mind; and hence, if any one of them were 
destroyed, injury would result to the constitution as a whole. But, 
with striking resemblance between the two, there is, for man, an unfor- 
6 



(42) 

tunate difference. Even if parts of the steam engine remain at rest, 
they retain their full strength, but in the case of the man, any one of 
his organs or faculties, not exercised, loses its power: and hence, the 
whole system suffers. 

It would seem, therefore, that any one who selects an occupation that 
his judgment approves, ought to have the same chance for happiness 
in life; but while most persons will admit the truth of such a propo- 
sition, there is a constant tendency in the human mind to ignore it. 
If a man should seek to find an exception to the law of gravity, or to 
invent perpetual motion, he excites ridicule, because it is clearly seen 
that there are no exceptions to the physical laws. But men constantly 
act as though the}' hoped to find exceptions to the moral laws. Many 
hug the delusion that distinguished position, high public eminence, 
will give more happiness than is to be found in the walks of private 
life. This means to the ambitious American mind that it is well to 
become a member of Congress, a president, or a distinguished military 
leader. As so few persons can be thus gratified, it is of the utmost 
importance that such a delusion should, if possible, be dispelled and 
countless disappointments be prevented. 

During sixteen years, I had in Congress an opportunity of knowing 
much of the members, and though they were generally men of worth 
and industry, I am satisfied that their enjoyments were not above 
those of the average of their fellow-citizens. They usually left public 
life with the conviction that their labors had brought them neither 
the thanks of their countrymen nor happiness to themselves. Six of 
the presidents were personally known to me, and I have no hesitation 
in saying that of all the public functionaries I ever knew, they were 
during their terms of office, the least happy. No one else had so 
much care and vexation, was compelled to labor more incessantly, had 
so few thanks, or seemed so thoroughly disgusted with his position. 
Unless they left the office with the consolation that they had done 
their duty, they were the least fortunate of men. Even in that event 
they had no advantage over any private citizen who is able to say, I 
have done my duty honestly through life. 

But you may say these were not great men, or they were unlucky, 
and you may promise yourself something better. Let us then for a 
moment consider the first Napoleon, uncjuestionably the most won- 
derful man of modern times, in the opinion of many, of all times. 
His extraordinary achievements, his long and brilliant career, are too 
familiar to need recital. But he led an army into Egypt, and when 
the clouds of disaster lowered upon him, he secretly abandoned it. He 
conducted five hundred thousand men in an expedition to Moscow, 
and leaving them to perish, he again sped back to Paris. At Leipsic, 
after a decisive defeat, abandoning all to McDonald and Poniatowski, 
he for the third time fled away. When his star went down forever at 
Waterloo, leaving his old guard to die for their own honor, a fourth 
time he carried in person to his capital the news of his defeat. In 
all these cases he abandoned the men whom he had led into danger. 
If one man were to follow you into an enterprise attended with peril, 
could you desert him and save yourself by flight? Is there one 



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person who now hears me that would be willing to bear in his bosom 
these dark recollections of the thousands thus abandoned, for all the 
glories of Marengo, the campaign of Wagram, and the sun of 
Austerlitz? 

You may truthfully say that Napoleon was a guilty man and could 
not be happy. Then look to George Washington, who, by the univer- 
sal judgment of the world, for the eminence of his moral worth, and 
the great results accomplished by him, stands as the most foremost 
and the most fortunate of men. Pass by the toils and disappointments 
of his earlier years, trace him through the entire period of the Revo- 
lution as the most anxious, the most thoughtful, and the gravest man 
in the American army. He, above all men who have lived, perhaps, 
seems most to remind one of the demeanor of the Saviour of the 
world, melancholy even to sadness. And during his administration 
of the Federal Government, he appeared to be oppressed with care ana 
weighed down by anxieties. His whole life was like that of one to 
whom had been entrusted the carrying of a casket of precious jewels, 
on a perilous journey, which could only be preserved by sleepless vig- 
ilance. To make amends for his extraordinary toils and sufferings, 
he had the consolation of having done his duty, under trying cir- 
cumstances. 

Were these great men peculiar, or exceptional in their career? The 
gifted Alexander, after his conquest of the world, died in a fit of 
drunkenness, while Julius Csesar, probably the first of men, in genius, 
talent, courage, magnanimity, accomplishments and achievements, 
fell by the daggers of trusted friends. Nor was the puritanical Crom- 
well Jmore happy than the voluptuous Grand Monarch of France. 
We imagine great men to be happy, because we see only their 
prominent features, which glare before the public eye, while their 
inner life is hidden from us. Their brightness is but the enchant- 
ment which distance lends. On a near approach it fades away as the 
blue of the mountain becomes rugged rock, its smooth and green 
slopes are converted into thickets of tangled shrubs and brambles, and 
its cloud, so white in the sunlight as to dazzle the eye, is seen to be 
only dark mist. 

It was once my fortune to witness a remarkable spectacle, the review 
of the army of Italy, on its return to Paris, on the 14th of August, 
1859. The entire area of the magnificent Place Vendome was con- 
verted into an immense amphitheatre, with velvet-cushioned seats, 
and graceful hangings of crimson and gold, and gay festoons and 
countless flags, and ornate columns, surmounted with gilded statues 
of victory. Between the great triumphal column of Napoleon the 
First and the balcony of the Empress, formed of cloth of crimson and 
gold, and alike tasteful and splendid, there was barely left space 
enough for the army to pass. And as the eighty thousand picked 
men, covered with the fresh green laurels of Magenta and Solferino, 
with elastic step, came along down the Rue de la Paix, their glittering 
bayonets, gilded by the sunbeams, reminded me of a field of ripe 
grain gently waving in the breeze. With rapid pace they swept by, 
with cheering shouts, and the music of an hundred bands, and their 



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varied equipments and arms, infantry, Voltiguers, Zouaves, Turcos, 
Guards Imperial, artillery, mailed and crested cavalry, with captured 
cannon and banners, dinted or torn, fitting trophies of victory, 
roundings, and that immense assemblage of intelligent and polished 
Lo iking at. their splendid array, with its imposing and gorgeous sur- 
spectators, such as the modern civilization of Europe and America 
could alone furnish, I felt confident that that day's pageant surpassed 
any that had hitherto been presented to the eye of man. The Roman 
triumphs came up in fancy before me, and remembering that Cfesar 
had won tiie empire of the world at Pharsalia, with only twenty two 
thousand nien, a victory which any one of the batteries then passing 
would, if used against him, have converted into a defeat, I compared 
the display before me with that which the narrow streets and compara- 
tively rude population of Rome would have furnished. 

As the strains from one of the martial bands filled the air, my mind 
went back suddenly to the first Roman triumph, when Romulus, in 
his robe of state, and with laurel crown on his brow, singing a song 
of triumph, marched along on foot, and carried on bis right shoulder, 
suspended on an oaken trophy, the arms of King Acron, whom lie 
had slain in single combat. How much did the small band of 
desperate outlaws admire the Great Roumlas, as with stalwart frame 
and mart.al tread, he strode along to the temple of Jupiter Feretrius? 
Was he not elated and happy in the thought that he had attained 
the highest reward of human ambition? Was Napoleon, the arbiter 
of Europe, more happ}'? Of all the spectators in that bright throng, 
he alone was deeply thoughtful and melancholy. Why was this? A 
man, confident of his own destiny, and at all times void of personal 
fear, he could not, on that day, apprehend the sharp shot, or the 
explosive shell of the assassin. Was he depressed by the sad thought 
that his career had been interrupted, and that he had failed to make 
Italy free from the Alps to the Adriatic? Or was he meditating on 
the fickleness of the breath of popular applause, and dreading the 
upheaval of some new revolutionary earthquake? Did he fear to fall 
from the giddy height he had attained, or did he simply realize the 
truth, that he who has climbed to the topmost round of the ladder of 
ambition, often seems to the public to sink because he does not con- 
tinue to rise still higher? Or, did the shadows of coming events, 
mysteriously, and, by strange anticipation, darken his mind? I know 
not; but neither the gorgeous display around, nor the triumphal 
march, nor the spirit-stirring trump or drum, nor even the gladsome 
shouts of liis soldiers, as they cheered their victorious commander, 
could change that thoughtful countenance. Only once was it lit for 
a moment with a smile, when his little son, in the uniform of corporal, 
was brought from the side of the Empress, and placed on his horse 
before him. 

Twelve years have passed by, and that majestic column of more 
durable material, and grander height than those of Trajan, or Anto- 
ninus, had fallen to the earth by the hands and amid the shouts of a 
beastly multitude, who were far more vociferous than they had been 
on the day when they cheered the imperial arbiter of Europe. His 



(45) 

armies were all captured and vanquished, and he a prisoner in a 
foreign land, dying with as much pain and gloom as did his greater 
uncle. Pharaoh, in the Red Sea; Nebuchadnezzar among the cattle; 
Alexander, the Macedonian, dying in a drunken debauch; Hannibal, 
in exile, by poison; Julius Qesar, stabbed by his friends; the two 
Napoleons, captives, sinking under gloomy defeat and painful disease; 
these are, by consent of all mankind, the chiefest representatives of 
human greatness and glory. Which of them, young gentlemen, do 
you envy the most, and which will you choose for your model? As 
in the case of the Babylonian monarch, may not all these examples 
have been provided, "to the intent that the living may know, that 
the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whom- 
soever He will, and setteth over it the basest of men?" 

If, then, it is evident that high positions do not ensure happiness, 
let us at once recognize the truth that all honest occupations are equally 
capable of giving satisfaction to those who are engaged in them. But 
whatever one finds to do, let him do it with all his might. This 
injunction is the more necessary to us in our present condition as 
North Carolinians. Within the past ten years, two-thirds of all the 
property in the State lias been destroyed, and, therefore, it is difficult 
for us, with the remaining third, to support such a state of civilization 
as we have been accustomed to enjoy, and educate properly the rising 
generation. The tendency of young men to crowd what is called the 
learned professions, is most unfortunate. Our systems of education 
are perhaps partially responsible for this. They direct the attention of 
the student too much to the ideas and opinions of men, rather than to 
things. The best knowledge is not that obtained second-hand or 
through a medium. When one examines for himself a house, or an 
animal, or a landscape, he knows far more of it than any mere descrip- 
tion could give him. The opinions of others should be regarded only 
as aids to us, and not as the ends to be sought. Small minds are 
merely able to take hold of the declarations of others. They may make 
dialecticians, mislead the superficial, and often acquire a great reputa- 
tion for learning and wisdom, with the multitude; but when they 
are placed in positions where conduct and real ability are demanded, 
they usually show themselves childishly imbecile. It requires more 
breadth and strength of mind to enable one to deal with men and 
events. If the young men of the day wish to be practically useful, 
and to become reall}^ great, their studies must take a wide range, they 
must investigate material things, and by acquainting themselves with 
the forces of inanimate nature, as well as the impulses which move 
men, they will be better able to effect great and useful enterprises. 

But the task before us, I know, seems difficult. When our great 
armies were beaten, our people with one accord, decided to abandon 
the contest. As the lion when his spring has failed, does not pursue, 
so they were too wise to prolong a petty and vexatious struggle as a 
semi-civilized community would have done, and too great-hearted to 
manifest hostile feelings or mortification under defeat On the con- 
trary, it was gratifying to see with what diligence and alacrity our 
citizens went to work to repair their losses. Not only was great mate- 



(46) 

rial improvement everywhere in progress, but it was astonishing to 
observe how suddenly our people settled down into the routine of 
quiet life. Probably in no period of our history, were the laws more 
successfully administered, and private rights better protected, and the 
community as a whole, more peaceful, than throughout the year 1866. 
The United States, however, thought proper to abolish our State gov- 
ernment, to disfranchise most of those citizens whose capacity and 
training fitted them to discharge public business, and also conferred 
the right of suffrage and to hold office on a large class without expe- 
rience or knowledge. That to effect these objects, the Reconstruction 
Acts were necessary, I do not question, for our own people would not 
of themselves have either disfranchised their leading men, nor given, 
universally the right to vote and hold office to the liberated colored 
men. It would be out of place at this time, for us to enquire whether 
we might not have so acted, as to have greatly lessened the mischief 
caused by these proceedings. 

Their immediate effect has been, for the last six years, to afflict us 
with governments which, to use the mildest terms, have, whether we 
consider their legislative, executive or judicial action, proven them- 
selves utterly incapable of properly transacting the business of the 
State. Our credit has been completely destroyed, and our people have 
been demoralized, politically and financially, though not as yet 
socially. As a State, we cannot at present do much, directly, to 
advance our material prosperity, and as individuals, we have to 
struggle against great odds. The influx of capital and emigrants is 
prevented. When abroad, I often hear such questions as these : 
"What are you going to do about your State debt ? will you repudiate? 
I am not willing to live in a repudiating State. Is not your taxation 
oppressive ? When can you have a better system of government ? 
I would like to invest in your State, or move there, but I am afraid." 
The present tariff and internal revenue systems, which are onerous 
even to the Northern States, fall with oppressive weight on our crip- 
pled and feeble community. 

These burthens, however, great as they are, may all be borne. The 
fact that no one who was true to the State in the late great struggle 
can, during the present generation, hope to become President, or attain 
any similar high position under the government, is not a serious evil. 
The less the love of office be stimulated, perhaps the better for our 
people in their present condition. The Jews under political bans, in 
every country in Europe, during the middle ages, became the weal- 
thiest and the most enlightened people of those days. It will be time 
enough for us after we have restored our own material prosperity, 
again to aspire to control the destinies of our common country. To 
our young men who may think of embarking in public life, I would 
say, that the chief defect I found among the members of Congress in 
former times, was the want of moral or political courage. An hun- 
dred times has it been said to me "this measure is right and ought to 
pass, but my constituents do not understand it, and if I were to vote 
for it they would beat me." Or, perhaps, this would be stated, " this 
thing is all wrong, and I hope you will be able to get it defeated, but 



(47) 

my people are in favor of it, and if I don't ^o for it I will not be able 
to get a nomination again." Several members from North Carolina 
took positions on an important issue against what was regarded as the 
popular feeling. Some of them afterwards, to break the force of the 
opposition the}^ feared, modified their positions. "^Jhey were all beaten, 
while the two members who stood firmly by their opinions, were 
triumphantly returned. 

Nothing gives a man so much force in discussion as the conviction 
that he is in the right, nor is any adversary so dangerous as one 
honestly in error. I would rather fight against the most ingenious 
sophist than such a person. If I think a man right, I embark in no 
contest with him, for I know that any pai;tial advantage gained would 
be only like the fruit of the Dead Sea. If a man will take invariably 
that course on public questions which he sees to be right, he will 
always feel proud of his position, and will be able to defend it with an 
earnestness and force that will generally carry his hearers along with 
him. The conviction of being right, ever present, is worth more to 
him than the erroneous opinions of a thousand. 

Again, the result of the late civil war does not of itself prove that 
we were, as a people, less worthy than our opponents. The Philistines, 
who for forty years at a time made the Israelites hewers of wood and 
drawers of water, were not themselves less idolatrous and wicked. No 
man in England did so much to promote the reformation as Henry 
VIII, sensual, bloody and brutal tyrant as he was. The locusts that 
came out of the bottomless pit to punish wicked men for five months, 
were themselves but the subjects of Apollyon, and returned again to 
his dominion. "The ways of Providence are past finding out, and are 
wiser than the imaginations of men." It will be for us by our actions 
hereafter to show whether we are better or worse than our late oppo- 
nents. There should be no hesitation on our part, in conceding to the 
Northern men the same sincerity and public spirit we claim for our- 
selves. It is evident from the debates in the convention which formed 
the Constitution of the United States, that there were certain great 
questions at issue, on which no agreement could be efi:ected, and they 
were, therefore, by common consent, left to take the chances for settle- 
ment in the future. While constitutional guarantees, and present 
pecuniary and social interests were largely on our side, the general 
feeling of the civilized world, ignoring the distinction of races, was in 
favor of personal liberty, and thus against us. Hence, when the war 
was begun, it was but natural and proper that each citizen should 
stand with the community in which he lived, as when a war occurs 
between separate nations. 

For the great war itself North Carolina was not, as a State, nor were 
her sons responsible. Soon after its close, in December, 1865, I met 
the present Vice-President of the United States in Washington, and 
he said to me, "I am glad the war is over; it could not have been 
avoided ; the people of the North were determined to abolish slavery, 
and you, in the South, had too great an interest in it to give it up 
without a fight." A few weeks later, in New York, Governor Seymour, 
certainly intellectually equal to any statesman of the day, remarked to 



(48) 

tne that he had, at the beginning of the war, been inclined to condemn 
the course of the Southern men in seceding, but that he was then con- 
vinced that the collision could not have been avoided. General Martin- 
dale, in his address to the Grand Array of the Republic, in Philadelphia, 
since, has stated, with great clearness and force, that the war was the 
result of causes for which the people of neither the North nor of the 
South, of this generation, were responsible; and that those who fought 
on both sides had borne themselves like brave and honorable men in 
a cause regarded as just. Such is now, apparently, the conviction of 
all the leading statesmen of both parties in the North. From 1850, 
down, I had a conviction that such a collision could not be long post- 
poned except by a foreign war. Regarding that as the less of the two 
evils, I, therefore, as a member and Chairman of the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs, endeavored to induce both Presidents Pierce and 
Buchanan to go to war with Great Britain, who had furnished us 
ample grounds for such an act by her persistent efforts to produce a 
civil war in our own country. An union of the remains of the old 
Whig and Democratic parties, in 1860, might probably have postponed 
the difficulty for a few years, or caused a different termination of the 
contest. 

Even for the preceding state of affairs, which caused the war. North 
Carolina was not responsible. The African slaves were imported 
originally into the colony under the orders of the British Government, 
and when the Revolution began, the first North Carolina Congress 
passed a resolution against the slave trade. During the formation of 
the Constitution of the United States, North Carolina, with the Middle 
States, voted against the continuance of the trade, but was overborne 
by the united vote of the New England States, aided only by South 
Carolina and Georgia. In addition to these things, the Constitution 
of the United States, which we only adopted after two years refusal so 
to do, contained the strongest guarantees for the protection of the 
exciting system. Had we, therefore, c^uietly submitted to have our 
constitutional rights disregarded, one-third of our whole property con- 
fiscated, and our social system destroyed, we should have been a 
mark for the finger of scorn, and would, ever after, for our mean 
cowardice, have been regarded as a reproach to humanit3\ A people, 
that voluntarily consents to be trampled under foot and thus degraded, 
delivers itself up to demoralization, corruption and ignomin}'. By 
our manly resistance we have not only retained our self-respect, but 
acquired the confidence and esteem of all the enlightened nations of 
the earth. I would a thousand times rather be pointed to as the indi- 
vidual who had lost most in the great struggle, than to have come out 
of it unscathed and prosperous. 

It is probable that a different result, might by other counsels, have 
been produced. Individually, I had such an opinion, and wrote to a 
committee in Charlotte, in 1856, advising that we should rather strive 
to hold the government, and make the fight in the Union. At some 
period before the collision of arms began. North Carolina, by taking 
position and presenting an ultimatum through the action of her con- 
vention, could probably have given a different turn to the contest. 



(49) 

As, however, she did not think proper to attempt to control the move- 
ment after several of the States had seceded, and the war had been 
begun, a proper regard for her safety and honor left her no alterna- 
tive. Having "then done what could not have been honorably 
avoided, why should we not be content with our action ? Providence 
has relieved us from the responsibility and care of the African race, 
and given us a new social system. Time will onable us to decide if 
this is not in the end advantageous to us. If tlie change has been 
attended with great privation and much suffering, let us not forget 
that adversity, though painful, rightly borne, gives fortitude, purifies 
and ennobles. 

The past is secure to us. If, as it has been alleged, the government 
was, up to the year ISGO, mainly under the control of the Southern 
States, we may well accept such responsibility. During this long 
period there were no charges of bribery against Congressmen, except 
that just before the commencement of the war we expelled several 
members from the Northern States, not because they had taken bribes, 
but had merely expressed a desire to obtain money in improper modes. 
No great government in modern times has existed, that for such a 
period was so pure in its administration, so economical in its expen- 
ditures, and so light and moderate in its taxation. How it has since 
been we will not pause to consider. I know, however, so many good 
and noble men in the North, that I cannot doubt but that with our 
earnest aid, great improvements may be made in the administration. 

There is nothing in the past history of our State to prevent her 
taking a most prominent part in such a movement. Ten years before 
the Boston tea-party, disguised as Indians, in the night-time, threw 
the tea into the harbor, ISIorth Carolinians in open day arrested the 
stamp-master in Wilmington, and carrying him into the public 
square, compelled iiim to swear that he would never attempt to 
execute the Stam}) Act. More than four years before the fight at Lex- 
ington, two thousand North Carolinians were engaged in battle on the 
Alamance against Tryon, tlie British governor. The Declaration of 
Independence made in this county, preceded by more than a year 
that proclaimed in Philadelpliia, and during the entire struggle, old 
Mecklenburg, by the testimony of Cornwallis and Tarleton, bore the 
palm of being the most rebellious county in America. The defeat of 
Ferguson, on King's Mountain, enabled Greene to so cripple Corn- 
wallis at Guilford Court House, as to oblige him to retreat, after a 
battle which Thomas H. Benton, and many others, regard as the 
turning point of the Revolution. While to Virginia belongs the 
honor of Washington's birth, this county gave Andrew Jackson to the 
country. 

Our late great contest was mainly fought by infantry, and no other 
State furnished so large a force of that arm as did North Carolina. 
Mr. Davis himself, in no respect partial to us, told me in 1864, that 
our regiments were better kept up than those of any other State. Nor 
did any other State lose so many men in battle. So little since the 
war has been written in our behalf, that few, even of our own citizens, 
do justice to the achievements of our soldiers. Some of the most 
7 



(50) 

striking events of the war have not found a notice even in a North 
CaroHna newspaper. It was the unsupported charge of a North Caro- 
lina brigade that repulsed Foster with his twenty-two thousand men 
at Goldsboro. That same brigade took the most prominent part in 
the defense of Battery Wagner and Sullivan's Island, and gave that 
confidence to the commanders at Charleston that insured the successful 
defense of the harbor and city. The charge of two of its regiments 
at Drury's Bluff, completely routed General Butler's whole command, 
and drove it to Bermuda Hundreds, to be there " bottled up." This 
brigade, with the loss of one-third of its members on the evening of 
June the 1st, 1864, preserved the important position of Cold Harbor 
to General Lee, though in consequence of the giving way of the troops 
on its left, it was compelled at the same time to fight enemies in front. 
Hank and rear. On the 17th of June, 1864, at Petersburg, when two 
brigades on its right fled precipitately, and left a mile of open space 
through which a portion of the enemy passed, it drove them back — 
unaided it repulsed, in succession, twelve charges made by the com- 
bined corps of Smith and Burnside, forty-three thousand strong, and 
held the position until the enemy abandoned the contest. On the 
19th of August, south of Petersburg, in a successful charge, it cap- 
tured three times as many prisoners as it ttien numbered soldiers in 
its ranks. Up to this time, though it, during one period of three 
weeks, lost considerably more than half as many men by wounds in 
battle, as it ever had present at one time for duty, it was never broken 
by any attack. These facts are known to thousands, and cannot be, 
therefore, ignored or forgotten. It is but a small tribute to the courage 
and gallant deeds of these brave men, that I should to-day refer to 
some of their actions. North Carolina gave to the Confederacy more 
than one hundred and twenty thousand men, who, man for man, rank 
with any that in past ages have, embattled, stood for king or cause, for 
liberty or native land. 

Nothing in modern warfare has approached the impetuous dash of 
the Confederate charge. The great Athenian rush of Marathon was 
again and again repeated on a far grander scale, with an utter disre- 
gard of danger, and an uncalculating devotion to their cause never 
previously seen in battle. Complete physical exhaustion alone 
arrested the movement. 

Though our soldiers fell in a cause that was unsuccessful, they will 
not for that be forgotten. Sir William Wallace was hanged, drawn 
and quartered, but not for this has his memory been lost to Scotland. 
The thirty thousand gallant men who gave their lives for the protec- 
tion and the honor of their State, for their name and their race, will 
not fade from the memories of their countrymen of future ages. For 
the consolation of their friends let it be remembered that whosoever 
for the cause of truth " will lose his life, shall find it," and that they 
who " forsake houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, 
wife, or children, or lands, shall receive an hundred fold, and ever- 
lasting life." 

If, then, we have in the past done our duty as a people, how ought 
we to meet the future? Not by merely railing at those with whom, 



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by our surrender, we admitted that we were not in a condition longer 
to continue the contest. Not by blustering after the fashion of a few 
among us, who seem vexed with themselves now, because in the hour 
of danger they did not earnestly aid us, and are striving to recover 
consideration which they seem to fear they have lost. Still farther be 
it from us to form secret bands, and in disguise, in the night-time, to 
make covert attacks on defenseless individuals of any race. From the 
day when such a movement, years ago, first overspread a large part of 
our country, I have regarded secret political organissations as the most 
mischievous and corrupting of all human inventions. The deluded 
and ignorant men who were drawn into theKu-Klux and other secret 
societies, by men in whom they had confidence, are entitled to sym- 
pathy. When I have seen them, by the hundred, dragged over the 
State as prisoners, I have felt the strongest indignation against the 
originators of the movement, who so meanly shrunk from avowing 
their responsibility. Had he who first introduced the organization 
into the State, or assumed control of it, been possessed of a single emo- 
tion of honor or manliness, when he saw his deluded followers dragged 
about by deputy marshals, he would have left his hiding place, and, 
like Virgil's warrior, have exclaimed: "Adsu7n, qui feci; in me conver- 
titeferrumr By such an act he would not only have released his 
followers, but, to some extent, entitled himself to respect and con- 
sideration. 

To continue such a secret organization to control the distribution of 
offices in the State, is little less dishonorable. When men, while pro- 
fessing to be members of a great open political party, form a secret inside 
combination for such a purpose, they can only be looked upon as 
treacherous conspirators against associates with whom they pretend to 
be acting on terms of fairn"ess and equality. I advise you, gentlemen, 
as you wish to retain your own self-respect, and as you hope to be 
useful to your country, as you desire the approval of good men, and of 
Powers higher than all earthly things, avoid such complications. 
When in doubt as to your public duties, it may be well to ask yourself, 
"If all this should become known, what would my enemies say? what 
could my friends think of such a transaction?" 

What we now have to do, is to build up the prosperity of the State 
again. I fear that many are too despondent to do their full share in 
this great work. A horse disheartened does not draw the vehicle, a 
man discouraged accomplishes littl^ a people demoralized seldom 
prospers. Our noble women have, by their conduct, told us what we 
ought to do. Before the war, it seemed to me that nothing could add 
to the respect and admiration I felt for them; but when, during the 
great struggle, I witnessed their resignation under privations, their 
sacrifices and their labors, and have since observed how, under defeat 
and poverty, they have not failed in every honorable and proper work 
for their hands, 1 admire and reverence them far more than I ever did 
in the days of our prosperity. If every one of us would, for five years, 
labor as earnestly as we generally did during the war, and live as 
economically, we should be, at the end of that period, far in advance of 
what we now are. 



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You may say it is impossible to bring our community up to this. 
Then, at least, let us striveto come as near it as we can. When in the 
midst of labor that is vexatious or oppressive, nothing comes so fre- 
quently, perhaps, into the mind as the words, "My meat is to do the 
will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." Those whom St. 
John saw continually before the throne, arrayed in white robes, were 
"they which came out of great tribulation; they hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more;" and there they will remain forever. 

A thousand instances prove that a great pressure of evil, borne with 
fortitude, prepares us for future triumph. When their town had been 
burnt by the Gauls, the Romans did not abandon it, but having 
expelled the invaders, by their energy rebuilt it, and 'in time made it 
the first city in the world. The Jews, though wanderers for thousands 
of years, have retained their faith and their traditions. Even the 
Gipsies, rambling for a like period among many peoples and nations, 
have, in spite of their ignorance and poverty, preserved their identity. 
As we have made a fair and manly contest to maintain the political, 
industrial and social conditian, which came down to us from our 
fathers, why should we indulge in vain regrets? Abandoning, as far 
as possible, all gloomy thoughts, let us, stimulated by past recollections 
of prosperity and honor, look to the future. Though the lines of this 
generation have not fallen in pleasant places, we may lay broad and 
deep the foundations of prosperity and happiness for those who are to 
come after us. 

The same system of laws in the future must operate on us and also 
on the citizens of the Northern States. In the past we did not fear to 
compete with them on terms of equality, either in civil or military en- 
terprises. After listening to the eloquent speech of a Southern Senator, 
John G. Palfrey, an Abolition member from Massachusetts, turning 
round, said to me, "It is by just such speeches that you have kept your 
foot on our necks for seventy years." When one said to Mr. Seward, 
"there are ten Northern men in California to one from the South ; are 
you not willing to leave the question of slavery to the majority, when 
you have ten to one?" "No," he replied, "if we had five hundred to 
one, you would then beat us." Such declarations from those politi- 
cally unfriendly, show at least that we need not dread competition in 
the walks of peaceful life. In war, we point to the names and deeds 
of Washington, .Jackson, Harrison, Scott and Taylor, in the past, and 
later to such actions of the Southern soldiery as rise of themselves 
before your ininds. 

We have still, more than fifty thousand square miles of territory, 
not inferior, perhaps as a whole, to any country of equal extent. We 
have yet on our eastern border those broad bays and sounds, abun- 
dantly stored wdth such wealth as the sea contains. There are still 
those large bodies of alluvial lands, not inferior in fertility to the low- 
lands of Holland, or the Delta of Egypt. We yet have that long and 
broad belt of sandy loam, capable of producing wine enough for the 
wants of an hundred millions of people. Above this extends for 
nearly three hundred miles, an undulating country, that with proper 
tillage yields abundantly. We have also that large mountain region, 



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which, though it does not possess the grandeur and sublimity that 
renders the Alps the palaces of nature, excels them in beauty and 
immeasurably surpasses them in fertility, the richness of its vegetation 
and its adaption to minister to the wants of man. Our State possesses, 
in the greatest abundance and variety, all the best forest trees, with 
inexhaustible water power, and a fair share of useful minerals. 
Whatever could be produced in any one of the thirteen States, can be 
furnished with profit in some parts of North Carolina. Let us, then, 
teach the rising generation that industry and frugality are better than 
riches, that truth and honor, virtue and religion, will endure longer 
than the earth itself 

If the minds of our people are fully imbued with these great and 
noble ideas, if we continue in the future such earnest, energetic and 
grand efforts as in the past we made for our political rights, our social 
system, and to sustain that character for courage and honor which 
was transmitted to us by the actions of heroic ancestors, we shall yet 
place North Carolina abreast of the foremost communities of the globe. 



THE GREAT METEOR OF d860. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[Published In Appleton's Journal, January 7th, 1871.] 

On the 2d of August, 1860, I was at Asheville, Buncombe county, in 
the picturesque mountain region of North Carolina. On the evening of 
that day I retired to iny roam a little after ten o'clock. The moon wa8 
full and a])proaehing the meridian, and the night was clear and bright. 
There was a window on the west side of the room, covered by a white 
curtain. The candle having been extinguished, my attention was sud- 
denly arrested by a bright glare of light. It was much brighter than a 
candle would have been, and seemed like a sheet of flame against the 
window, but before I reached it the light suddenly changed its color and 
became beautifully white. The thought at once flashed upon me that it 
must be a meteor, and I saw its outline through the curtain as it exploded 
in the northwest. The light, at the moment of explosion, seemed as 
white as that produced by the burning of the metal magnesium. During 
the whole period that I observed the light it was greater than hundreds 
of moons would have caused. 

On the next day I made inquiries of many persons who had seen the 
meteor. It was observed by a large number, because the evening was 
that of the election day, and also because there was a party of gentlemen 
on horseback in the town to receive General Lane, whose coming was 
expected. They all concurred in saying that the meteor was first seen 
in the southeast, hut at a point nearer to the south than the east, that it 
moved toward the northwest, and when due west of Asheville appeared 
to be at an elevation of forty or forty-five degrees, and that it seemed 



(54) 

to explode in the northwest, with a great display of h'ght. Most persons 
regarded it as appearing to be eqnal in size to the full moon, and all 
agreed in saying that the moonlight was nothing in comparison with its 
brightness. When first seen in the southeast, it seemed of a dull or pale 
red coloi",. and bec-une bn'ghter as it moved along, until it resembled the 
sunliglit. 

Persons from the siirroHiiding country made similar statements as to 
its apjiearance. Colonel C. M. Avery, who saw it while in Morganton, 
sixty miles to the east of Asheville, described it as not materially different 
in position and aspect; while persons in Franklin, seventy miles west of 
Asheville, spoke of it in similar terms, except that it seemed to them 
higher in the heavens to the west, and more nearly over them. In a 
iew days the newpapera from Knoxville, Tennessee, and from Columbia^ 
South Carolina, came to hand, with similar descriptions, representing 
the meteor as having passed on the west side of both of those places. 
When the Raleigh Reijister an-ived from the east, it contained a very 
clear and minute description of it from the pen of Mr. B. F. Moore, one 
of our most eminent lawyers. In a few days I saw descriptions of the 
meteor in two successive numbers of the New York Herald., of the dates 
of August 7th and 9th. These numbers contained extracts from news- 
papers, and also letters from varions persons, at points widely distant^ 
and covering a great extent of territory. 

The most easterly notices were from Guiney Post Office, Caroline 
county, Virginia, and from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and the most 
westerly, from Montgomery, Alabima, Holly Springs, Mississippi, and 
Nashville, Tennessee. The telegraphic correspondents said next day 
that it had been seen simultaneously at New Orleans, Memphis, Cairo, 
etc.; and while, according to the statement of two of the papers at 
Nashville, it was seen to the east of that city, it appeared to pass on the 
west of Cincinnati, and several other places north and east of it in Ohio, 

The course of the meteor would seem to have been along a track 
nearly over the State line between South Carolina and Georgia, then 
directly above the county of Habersham, in the latter State, near the 
western extremity of North Carolina, very little to the east of Athens, 
Tennessee, but west of Knoxville and Cincinnati, and east of Nashville. 

I will, in the first place, ask attention to the facts bearing on the subject 
of tlie height of the meteor while visible. Raleigh, North Carolina, and 
Holly Springs, Mississippi, are at least six hundred miles from each 
other. A few days after I read Mr. Moore's precise and elaborate state- 
ment, he and I went to the spot where he had stood at the time he saw 
the meteor. V>^ means of certain trees and houses, he was able to indicate" 
the line along which it had traveled. By taking the directions with the 
aid of a compass, it was shown that he observed the meteor when it was 
twenty-four degrees south of west, and that the point where it was last 
seen by him was also when it was twenty-four degrees north of west. 
He saw it continuously as it passed over these forty-eight degrees, but, 
Holly Springs being a little south of west only, he necessarily saw it at 
the time when it was in the direction of that place, and he estimated its 
height as being thirty degrees above the horizon. 

From Holly Springs we have a carefully prepared and apparently 
very accurate statement from Mr. J. H. Ingraham, corroborated by the 



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lettere of several otlier y;entlmen. From that place the meteor was firet 
seen in the southeast, passed on the east side g'oin^i; northwestwardly, and 
disappeared in a direction west of north. 

At its greatest elevation, and when east, it appeared to be thirt}' deij;ree8 
above the horizon. It is clear, therefore, tliat Mr. Ing-raham and the 
other gentlemen must have seen it when it was in the direction of 
Raleigh. Both observers, therefore, saw the object when it was directly 
between them, and each estimated it as being at an altitude of thirty 
degrees above the horizon. If it was equally distant from each of them, 
and I take it that such was very nearly the fact, it was above a point on 
the earth's surface not less than three hundred miles distant from them. 
To be seen at such an altitude, it must, therefore, have been not less than 
one hundred and fifty miles above the earth's surface. Even if it were 
only twenty degrees in height apparently, it would in altitude be more 
than one hundred miles aljove the earth. 

Mr. Samuel Schooler, principal of Edge Hill school, at Guiney Post 
Office, Caroline county, Virginia, was distant more than seven hundred 
miles from Holly Springs, and saw it first in the southwest, moving 
toward the north, and disappearing in the west, or over the State of 
Kentucky. He states its altitude as being, apparently, tw^enty degrees 
above the horizon. As he must have been four hundred and fifty miles 
distant from its path, his estimate would give a similar or even greater 
altitude to the meteor. Caroline county and New Orleans are fully 
nine hundred miles apart, and, if it passed midway between them, it 
might w^ell have been seen b}' observers at both stations. 

When all the statements published are considered, there would seem 
to be no reason to doubt but that this meteor, when distinctly seen 
between Raleigh and Holly Springs, was more than one hundred and 
less than two hundred miles above the earth's surface. If, therefore, 
the common opinion i)e true, that meteors are rendered visible only by 
passing through the earth's atmosphere, then that atmosphere must 
extend much more than one hundred miles from the earth's surface. 
This very meteor affords a strong proof of the correctness of this conclu- 
sion. It exhibited at first a pale or dull i-ed coloi-, be'jame gradually 
brighter, till it attained a silvery whiteness, and then exploded with 
brilliant coruscations, and, as it moved on, repeated these explosions 
several times. This would be accounted for on the supposition, that a 
body originally cold was, on entering the atmosphere, heated by the 
friction caused by its rapid motion, at first becoming faintly luminous, 
and then growing brighter, until its surface became so intensely heated 
as to generate gases, and thus cause explosions, throwing off fragments 
from its surface, and, as its successive coats became heated in like manner, 
repeating its explosions till it passed out of the earth's atmosphere, or 
was finally shivered to ]ueces. 

When this meteor was first visible, it must have already passed for 
some distance through the earth's rarefied atmosphere, and have dipped 
deeply into it. It would, therefore, seem to be almost certain that the 
atmosphere must extend more than one hundred miles from the earth's 
surface, and probably much farther. 

I will now advert briefly to the size of the meteor. On this point 
the evidence is not so conclusive. Persons are liable to be deceived by 



(56) 

the a])pearance of briii:;lit lights with respect to their real size. Mr. 
Moore says, when first seen, it appeared to be only six inches in diameter, 
hut, when at the nearest point to him, he estimated it to appear thirty 
feet in diameter, and of some hundreds of yards in lenc^th. He lays 
much stress on the solid appearance of its \\s:\\i, it beinsc well defined 
and without any irregular edges. Others say it looked like a railroad 
train, while some say it was as large as a barrel. Mr Ingraham and 
others, at Holly Springs, say it was, in size, fully equal to the disk of 
the moon when full. A similar estimate was made by observers at 
Antioch College, Ohio, and at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania." If a body, at 
a distance of three hundred miles, should appear as large as the moon, 
it ought to be nearly three miles in diameter. As this meteor was 
throwing off luminous gases, it would, of course, appear larger than it 
]-eally was, especially after it became intensely heated ; but when its 
color was dimmer than that of the moon, the deception ought not to be 
so considerable. It is also true that the observers generally say its bright- 
ness was greater after it had passed and had receded from them. 

The amount of light it gave also indicates its great size. Major 
Francis Logan, of Habersham, Georgia, and P. N. McEwen, then at 
Athens, Tennessee, nearly under its line of movement, represent it as 
being larger than the moon, white, "like melted silver," and throwing 
a light upon the earth "like that of the sun." And yet its brightness 
is described in terms almost as strong by persons at Holly Springs, more 
than three hundred miles distant. At Nashville and other points, they 
speak of this light as sufiicient to enable one to pick np a pin. Could 
any l)ut a large body cast such a light over so great an extent of country ? 

But the most perplexing part of the subject is the rapid transmission 
of sound from this meteor. Colonel Willfarn M. McDowell (who was 
then, and for several years previous, making observations for the Smith- 
sonian Institution, at Asheville) stated to me the next morning, that, 
being on horseback and looking downward to the earth, which was 
already bright in the light of the full moon, he heard a rushing or hissing 
sound, and, on looking up, he observed the meteor in the southeast, 
presenting at first a dull-red color, and rapidly becoming brighter. 
Several other gentlemen in Asheville also declared that they heard such 
a sound distinctly, and at first supposed the meteor to be a rocket sent 
np. There were, however, in fact, no rockets at Asheville, nor was there 
any expectation that they were to be discharged. 

Dr. J. F. E. Hardy, (who has since the war been making the obser- 
vations for the use of the Smithsonian Institution) was then in the 
piazza ol Mr. Clieesboi'o's house, two miles southeast of Asheville, and 
declares that he not only saw, but heard the meteor while it was in sight. 
Being somewhat deaf, he asked the members of the family if they heard 
it, and had an affirmative reply from all present. Colonel John A. 
lagg, who had on that day been elected a member of the Legislature 
for Madison county, and who was then in the town of Marshall, twenty- 
one miles distant, in a northwestardly course, declared to me that he 
heard the hissing sound plainly while it was passing. Mr. J. H. Ingra- 
ham, writing from Holly Springs, says its passage was accompanied by 
a hissing sound, if the testimony of a great number of persons was to be 
relied on. Mr. W. C. Knapp, of the same place, says it was accompanied 



(57) 

by a liissino; noise. Mr. A. H. Preston, who writes from Antioch College, 
Yellow Springs, Ohio, says a faint, hissing sound was distinctly heard. 

Major Francis Logan, of Habersham, Georgia, says that persons there 
generally spoke of hearing it during its passage in the same manner. 
Mr. R. iST. McEwen, who was then at Athens, Tennessee, says that he 
and his wife, being in the piazza of his house, were both confident that 
the}'- heard a hissing sound as it passed over them. Seeing its brilliant 
explosion after it had passed toward the northwest, tliinking it only two 
or three miles distant, they remained standing for some time in expec- 
tation of hearing a report, but not until after they had gone into the 
liouse, and, as he supposed, an interval of fifteen minutes had elapsed, 
was there heard a prolonged sound, as the report of a large cannon. 

A gentleman who lived near Asheville, stated to me the day after the 
meteor had appeared, that, on seeing the explosion, he paused in the 
road for a little while, in expectation of hearing a report, but that he 
walked afterward nearly around his farm, and, after an interval, he 
thought of at least fifteen minutes, had elapsed, a heavy sound came 
from the direction of the meteor. 

We have thus the statement of a number of intelligent and trust- 
worthy persons, who were separated hundreds of miles from each other, 
all affirming the same fact. But as sound is ordinarily estimated to 
travel but little more than eleven hundred feet in a second, the meteor 
might be suyjposed to have been out of the sight of those nearest to it, 
for at least eight or ten minutes, before the sound created by its passage 
could have been heard. Were they all mistaken in supposing that they 
heard it while it was in sight ? 

Is the ear much more likely to be deceived than the eyel Are not 
persons generally as confident that they hear the thunder as that they 
seethe lightning? Why should all these persons imagine that they 
heard such a sound, when it is not usual for meteors, when so seen, to be 
also heard? Two of them did expect to hear the explosion, and waited 
for it without imagining that they heard it at the time when they 
expected it, and only heard it long after tliey had ceased to look for it. 

It is but natural tliat we should hesitate to believe as true what is at 
variance with general experience and with what seems established in 
science. Solid bodies had often been seen to come down from the higher 
regions of the atmosphere, before scientific men accepted the fall of 
meteorites as an established fact. But the circumstances under which 
these sounds were manifested were peculiar, and are not necessarily to 
be assumed as contradicting our general experience. In this instance, a 
large body was moving with very great rapidity through the atmos- 
pliere. We can only approximate in our estimate the speed with which 
this meteor moved. While some observers regarded it as being from 
six to ten seconds in sight, the longest estimate of its visibility is that of 
Mr. Ingraham, viz., twelve to fifteen seconds. He, and others with him 
at Holly Springs, saw it in the southeast, and until it had passed to the 
northwest. One writer says it disappeared west of north. It must, 
therefore, have been seen to move through a space to be measured by 
more than a hundred degrees, and it miglit have been much more. As the 
meteor, considering its elevation above a place on the earth's surface at 
least three hundred miles off, was at the nearest point fiirther from the 



-f- 



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observers than that distance, if it moved through one hundred degrees 
of space in a right line nearly, it must have been in view while ic was 
passing through a distance of six or eight hundred miles. Such a calcu- 
lation would make its speed from forty to sixty miles per second, 
de})ending of course upon the accuracy of the estimate of the time. It 
could not have been describing a curve around Holly Springs, because 
it was at the same time seen by the observers in Ohio, Pittsburg, Penn- 
sylvania, and Caroline county, Virginia, in its course to the northwest. 
Mr. Moore, who was at Raleigh, on the opposite side of the meteor's 
track, and probably about the same distance from it, saw it pass through 
forty-eight degrees, by measurement, in eight seconds, as he estimated 
the time it was in view. Its speed, calculated from these data, would 
approximate fifty miles in a second. As it appeared to be moving in the 
part of its course seen by me, it seemed certainly not less rapid. 

Might not a body moving with this velocity generate a rapid trans- 
mission of sound ? If we assume that there is some highly elastic 
medium through which light and electricity, for example, are propagated, 
might not this body, by the suddenness of the impulse it gave, propagate 
a sound to a great distance with such speed? 

But it may be- said that lightning moves with very great velocity, and 
that yet the noise of the thunder travels with only the speed of other 
sounds. It is true that, when the flash is near, the thunder seems louder 
to the ear than any other sound, and yet it is propagated to the distance 
of only twelve or fifteen miles. On the other hand, though, when one 
is near a large cannon, its report does not seem so loud as thunder, yet it 
can be heard to a much greater distance. When, during the late war, I 
was at Charleston or Savannah, I could, in favorable states of the atmos- 
phere, distinctly hear the guns at the other place, though the two cities 
are understood to be one hundred miles apart. The cannonades at 
Charleston were often heard in the upper portions of South Carolina, 
while those at Richmond, Virginia, were sometimes heard west of 
Greensboro, in North Carolina — in each case at a distance of nearly one 
hundred and fifty miles. Why is it, then, that though thunder seems 
louder than the reports of artillery, it cannot be heard so far? 

The explanation does not seem to be difficult. If a pistol be dis- 
charged into the water, the bullet breaks the surface violently, and 
causes the water to be sprinkled for a short distance ; but the ripple 
produced on the surface extends but a few feet around. When, how- 
ever, the steam-frigate Minnesota was launched at the Washington Navy- 
Yard, though she glided so gently into the water that she did not break 
the surface apparently, yet she caused a wave that extended itself across 
the harbor, and rose several feet on the shore opposite, wetting many 
persons who were there to see the launch. As an illustration on a still 
larger scale, I refer to the fact that earthquakes in Japan cause waves 
which ai'e propagated across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of California. 
A large body, though moving slowly, creates a wave which extends to a 
great distance, while a violent impulse of a small one produces no such 
result. 

From the small ness of the furrow produced by lightning through the 
bodies of trees struck by it, and from its passing so readily along a small 
rod, it would seem that the volume of air diplaced by it is small, and 



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analogous to the effect caused by tlie pistol-shot on the water ; while the 
explosion of gunpowder, when a large cannon is discharged, produces a 
greater displacement of the atmosphere, causing a large wave of sound, 
which is extended to a great distance, as the wave in the water caused 
by the Minnesota was perceptible for miles. 

But, when the ship was launched, though a larger portion of her bulk 
was in the air than in the water, yet she did not make a corresponding 
wave in the air which could be felt across the harbor. Even a railroad 
train, moving much faster than did the Minnesota, does not send in 
advance of it a great wave in the air. But, in fact, air is capable of 
receiving such an impulse. When a large gun is discharged, such motion 
is given to the air that houses are shaken and window glass broken. 
As air, therefore, is much rarer and more elastic than water, it seems 
that it requires a much more sudden impulse to create an extended wave 
in it than in water. If, then, it may be regarded as a general law that 
the greater the rarity and elasticity of a medium, the more sudden and 
violent must be a force sufticient to produce a movement that will be 
extensive, then it might well be that the expansion of gases generated 
by the explosion of gunpowder would be too slow to affect a medium as 
much rarer than common air as that air is rarer than water. But a 
much more sudden and violent movement might possibly cause an 
impulse in such a medium that could be perceptible at a great distance. 

A cannon-ball, propelled with the ordinary charge, is barely driven a 
mile in five seconds. If we take forty miles per second as the velocity 
of this meteor, it moved with a speed two hundred times greater than 
that of the cannon-shot. A spherical cast-iron shot, one foot in diameter, ' 
weighs about two hundred and twenty-iive pounds. If the meteor be 
assumed to have had a diameter of one mile, its surface, and the conse- 
quent volume of atmosphere displaced, would have been more than 
twenty-five million times greater than that of the cannon-ball. And, as 
its solid contents were in bulk more than five tliousand times greater 
than this number indicates, the resistance of the atmosphere would be 
trifling in comparison with that to the cannon-shot. Even if the diameter 
of tlie meteor were but one hundred feet, its surface -would have been 
ten thousand times greater, and its bulk one million times larger. Such 
a body, moving with a speed two hundred times faster, would present a 
condition of facts with wliich we are not at all familiar on the surface of 
the earth. 

The hissing sound described reminds one somewhat of sounds occa- 
sionally heard when electricity is passing along imperfect or non-con- 
ducting substances. 

If electricity be coextensive with the atmosphere, this meteor might 
have produced great accumulations and disturbances in it, and caused 
vil)rations to great distances. That these should be very rapid would 
seem to be probable from the fact that the greater the rarity of the several 
gases the higher the speed with which sound is propagated through 
them. 

Mr. McEwen, at Athens, heard the hissing sound while the meteor 
was in sight; but fifteen minutes elapsed before the report from the 
explosion reached him. The explosion was doubtless caused by the 
intense heat at the surface of the meteor, which generated gases, the 



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expansion of which threw off the outer coating of the body in frag- 
ments. These gases ought to be expected to expand with a force and 
speed equal to those caused by the explosion of gunpowder. This has 
not, I think, been estimated as equalling one mile per second. 

Such a movement would, therefore, be slow, compared with the 
velocity of the meteor itself. Hence, while the hissing sound caused by 
the latter might move with the rapidity of electricity, tliat caused by 
the explosion would travel onl}' with the speed of such sounds as we are 
familiar with, and would therefore reach a person one hundred and eighty 
miles distant in fifteen minutes. 



HUXLEY, DARY/IN and TYNDALL; 

Or, the theory OP EVOLUTION. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[Published in the Washington Chronicle, January 31st, 1875.] 

So much attention has of late been given to the views of such men 
of science as Darwin, Huxley, and others, with respect to the origin of 
life and the production and development of animal and vegetable 
species, that I am tempted to present to you a paper on this subject. 
Without claiming more scientific knowledge than any gentleman who 
reads and reflects may possess, I propose to offer objections to the views 
of that school of philosophers. 

To avoid prolixity I shall abstain from the use of such scientific 
terms as would require explanation to render them intelligible to many 
readers, and endeavor simply to state in plain language the proposi- 
tions of that school, so as to present their views fairly and justly. 

Their doctrine may be stated in general terms as embodying the 
hypothesis that the various species of animals now living were not 
called into existence by special acts of a creative power, but owe their 
being and present condition to a slow and gradual development from 
earlier and inferior animals. It is maintained that all existing species 
came either from one, or at most a few inferior creatures called monads 
or primordial forms, and that, by a succession of evolutions or changes 
in them, all animals exist as we now perceive them. In this mode 
man himself is supposed to have come from a lower animal, probabl}^ 
of the ape species. 

I regard this hypothesis as improbable in itself, without a single 
fact to support it, and without one plausible argument in its favor. 

Let us first consider the theoiy of "natural selection" or the "sur- 
vival of the fittest," which is assumed to have been the chief instru- 
mentality that has effected the successive changes that have brought 



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an animal, originally inferior to the oyster, up to naan as he now 
appears. 

By natural selection we are to understand a theory of this kind. 
The fact is stated that young animals at their birth differ in their con- 
stitutions, some of them being larger and stronger than others. During 
their struggles for existence those having most bodily vigor will 
survive, while the feeble will succumb to the difficulties with which 
they are surrounded. As the more vigorous only survive, they trans- 
mit to their offspring healthy and strong constitutions. This process 
being repeated from time to time will not only make the whole species 
more vigorous than it originally was, but it will acquire new and 
superior qualities, and will finally seem to have become a different and 
higher race of animals. This process will be continued, each time 
producing, by successive evolutions, superior beings, until finally man 
is formed, his last progenitor having most probably been a species of 
ape like the ourang-outang or gorilla. The 5rst part of this statement, 
viz: that among animals those having at birth the most vigorous 
constitutions survive while the feeble perish, has not the merit of 
novelty. The fact did not escape the observation of even the most 
ignorant savages, among whom it is sometimes the custom to expose 
to death infants so feeble that they would not probably survive and 
become vigorous adults. Though this practice does not prevail among 
civilized people, yet one may hear a nurse say that such a new-born 
infant is so feeble that it will be very difficult "to raise it." Farmers 
understand this so well that when, in a litter of young pigs, one under 
size is seen, it is assumed that he will not be able to contend with 
the others for his food, and it is decided that he must be put in a pen 
and fed on slops, so that he may, in due time, be killed as a shoat. 

All stock raisers recognize this principle, and select their sows and 
brood mares of good size and fine developments. Unquestionably 
larger and better animals are thus obtained, but while their size is 
increased, the improvement does not extend beyond certain limits, 
which seem invariable for each species. Though the hog can be 
greatly increased in size, he never becomes as large as the bullock or 
horse, nor can the horse be gotten up to the bulk of the elephant. 
There is in fact no evidence of any permanent addition even to the 
size of the species, much less of any change in its organization. When 
the stimulating cause ceases the animal seems to revert to its former 
condition. 

Though the Arab and Tartar wild horses have, by good feeding in 
Europe, been greatly increased in size, yet when left to take care of 
themselves on the plains of Mexico or South America, they becoir e the 
smaller mustang, and on the banks of Eastern North Carolina dwindle 
into the little "marsh pony." In like manner the hog, left to run 
wild in the mountain forests, is reduced to a small, hardy animal. 
Even with respect to the human race, which is not subject to changes 
of food, tall parents often have children shorter than themselves, nor 
have we any evidence that the process of "evolution or natural 
selection" has ever produced human beings an hundred or even twenty 
feet high, as it should have done upon this hypothesis. It seems, 



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rather, that the changes of which each species is capable, are confined 
within certain limits easily observed, within which these species seem 
to vibrate like the pendulum of a clock. 

But, even if the fact were otherwise, it would not support the theory 
of the evolutionists, unless it could also be sliown that animals would 
not only increase in size, but that they could likewise be developed 
into some other species. It is necessary that the sow should not only 
become very large, but that she should also produce a cow or a lion, or 
the mare give birth to a dromedary or an elephant, to lend support to 
their views. 

Great stress is laid on the fact, however, that surrounding conditions 
do, in certain cases, diminish or influence the development of some 
animals. It is stated that if a tadpole be kept in cold water he will, 
for a long period, perhaps an indefinite one, remain simply a tadpole, 
and not be developed into a frog. This fact, however, is, by no means, 
a singular one. Every old woman, who raises poultry, knows that if 
an egg be kept cold it will not hatch, or, to use a scientific phrase, be 
developed into a chicken. In like manner, all farmers know that if a 
cold spell of weather comes on immediately after their corn or cotton 
has been planted, it does not come up. While this result may be 
looked for in all cases, there is another analogy between them which 
is even more unfortunate for the evolutionist. When warm weather 
causes the seed to germinate, the plant will invariably follow in its 
form and qualities that from which the seed came. In like manner 
whenever the egg is hatched the product is a chicken, and never a 
goose or a rabbit; so, however long the tadpole may be detained in cold 
water, when he does develop he becomes always a frog. What the 
advocate of evolution by natural selection needs to show is, that under 
these conditions the tadpole should become a fish, a lizard, or a mouse. 
If he could point to such a result as this he would then have one fact 
to support his hypothesis. 

It is said, however, that if we go back to the earliest germs of life, 
it is ditficult, if not impossible, to distinguish those in the eggs of 
certain birds from such as are found in the eggs of a serpent. But the 
essential fact remains that, however much alike in appearance they 
may be, each germ, when developed, invariably produces an animal 
like that from which it came. This fact makes the case still stronger 
against the evolutionist; for if it were true that these germs of different 
animals were in material, form and quality in all respects precisely 
alike, the great fact that they invariably produce different animals, 
tends to prove that the form of any particular species is not deter- 
mined by matter alone, but that the mysterious substance or quality 
which is designated as vitality, is something independent of the mere 
identity and form of matter. 

When such objections are presented the evolutionists insist that mere 
negative evidence is insufficient and ought not to be relied on. Though 
it may be true that negative evidence is inconclusive in some cases, yet 
in other instances it is as satisfactory and convincing as any positive 
evidence can be. Suppose an individual were to affirm that a bar of 
iron, if made red hot, would be converted into gold, I might reply 



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that I had seen iron frequently thus heated without its being so 
changed; that, in fact, all iron was thus heated while being manufac- 
tured, and that it never had been in a single instance converted into 
gold. Is there a man acquainted with metals who would not be just 
as thoroughly satisfied by such negative evidence that the iron would 
not become gold that as it would not by being thus heated cease to be 
acted on by the force of gravity, and remain if left without support 
stationary in the air? In like manner does any one doubt but that 
the offspring of a sow would be pigs, and not puppies or lambs ? 

But the evolutionist replies that though these things appear to be 
true, yet we cannot know what an indefinite period of time might 
have accomplished; that we cannot decide what millions of years or 
of ages might effect by means of the "plastic forces of nature." To 
this surmise, however, the answer is that physical science, that science 
which deals with material things, proposes to rest on observed facts, 
and not on mere suppositions, like those of the school-men of the 
middle ages. Its professors are often designated as positive philoso- 
phers, and pride themselves on following facts to whatever conclusions 
they may lead. How, then, can a hypothesis be maintained which 
not only has no fact to support it, but to which every known fact 
bearing on the case is directly hostile? If we may assume a thing 
to be true merely because it cannot be proved that at some time in the 
past, or at some place in the world, it might not have existed, then 
why doubt the reality of Sinbad's voyages, or the wonders of Aladdin's 
lamp ? 

It is urged, however, that at least different species may have origina- 
ted in a common ancestor, and gradually diverged like the branches of 
a tree. The case is referred to in which from the same stock pigeons of 
different colors and forms have been produced. Unfortunately, how- 
ever, for the evolutionist, the birds thus produced are invariably 
pigeons, and never hawdvs, ducks, or animals of any other species. If 
in one case it could be shown, for example, that a sweet-potato when 
planted had given rise to a sweet-potato-vine from its centre, while from 
its north end a young oak had sprouted, and from its south a pump- 
kin-vine had shot out, then there would be a striking fact for the evo- 
lutionist. It may be .said that it is unreasonable to expect so great a 
change at a single bound, and that a long period should be imagined 
to efiect such a result, but in the absence of all evidence, upon what 
basis can such an opinion rest ? 

These changes are supposed, by the advocates of the "natural selec- 
tion " hypothesis, to have been produced among animals by their 
having been placed in situations sometimes in which they felt the 
want of the particular change. When suffering from cold, one 
animal would feel the want of hair, and to gratify its longings hair 
would grow on it. Another, to enable it to reach the leaves above it, 
by continually stretching its neck upward, and by wishing for it to 
be longer, would have it gradually extended, and in time become a 
giraffe, instead of remaining a deer or a camel. The ape, though he 
had never seen a man, as no man had yet existed, wished, neverthe- 
less, to become one, and, by wishing very energetically, had his fore- 



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paws converted into hands, his hinder ones changed into the flat feet 
of a man, his brain enlarged to three times its former size, and his 
spine made erect. 

One of the most earnest and ingenious of the advocates of the evolu- 
tion theory, however, Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, finds a serious stum- 
bling block in his way when he considers the changes v/hich the ape 
underwent while being converted into a man. His hind foot lost its 
prehensile faculty by becoming like that of a man, and was, therefore, 
much less useful to him in climbing among the trees, while 
he did not for a long time at least know how to turn his hands to a 
good account. The great difficulty, however, which Mr. Wallace 
encountered was that he could not understand why the ape wished to 
get rid of the hair on his back when he became a man. All men are 
destitute of hair along the spine, while savages especially seem to 
desire to have it on their backs. The ape had it most abundantly on 
his back, and it would seem ought to have greatly rejoiced in it as a 
protection against the rain. Most animals, as Mr. Wallace observes, 
though they have little hair on their bellies, possess it in abundance 
on their backs, while along the spine especially it is thickest, some- 
times taking the form of bristles. Mr. Wallace further states that sav- 
ages seem especially to suffer from cold on their backs, and, therefore, 
when they can obtain even a small piece of skin they invariably place 
it over their shoulders. Some of them, as the Fuegians, are even 
smart enough to have the skin so tied on that they are able to shift it 
from side to side, according to the direction of the wind, to protect 
them from it. As, therefore, the hair was manifestly advantageous 
to the ape in his original condition, and was equally so to him after 
he became a savage, why in the world did he wish to get rid of it? 
And as savages feel the want of it so much, why did not "natural 
selection" give it back to them again ? After casting about for some 
satisfactory answer, with little success, Mr. Wallace fears it will become 
necessary to seek for some other principle in addition to "natural 
selection." Ludicrous as this whole passage appears, one is not less 
amused with that narrowness of vision, which prevents him from 
seeing obstacles not less formidable to every part of his hypothesis. 

It is also true, however, that while he is not staggered at all by the 
proposition that the ape, by wishing it, could have his brain expanded 
from a capacity of thirty-four inches at the utmost up to a bulk of 
more than a hundred inches, or above three times its original size, 
yet he cannot understand why the ape should have wished for a moral 
sense. He cannot perceive any reason why the animal should have 
desired the possession of conscientious feelings or a sense of right and 
wrong. In fact, such emotions, instead of being of advantage, would 
seem rather to have been an incumbrance to him while engaged in 
such predatory enterprises as our modern apes appear to take delight in. 

To this view also the objection exists that no organic change seems 
to have been produced in any animal by its feeling a desire for such 
a change. As yet it has not been stated that any one of the maimed 
soldiers that one meets has had his limb restored to him, though 
from their resorting to artificial helps there is little doubt but that 



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they desire such restoration. If the "plastic forces of nature" would 
now supply teeth as they formerly did to the animals wishing for 
them, would there be as many dentists as the signs on the doors seem 
to indicate ? 

If it should be urged that having once furnished the organs to the 
individuals, the powers of '' natural selection " had been exhausted in 
their case, we may well ask, How is it that no one of the short men we 
meet, who often manifest a desire to be tall, has, even by the most 
vehement wishing, been able to add a cubit or a single inch to his 
stature? If, in truth, the mind of animal or man were able simpl}' by 
its action to change material things to the extent which the theories 
of the evolutionists assume, then its potency over matter would be 
immensely greater than its most enthusiastic advocates have ever 
claimed for it. 

Again, the facts presented by geological science have been appealed 
to as lending support to the views of the evolutionists. It is said that 
the animals which existed in the early geological periods were inferior 
to those which succeeded them in later ages, and that an upward 
progress has been steady and uniform, from the shell-fish up to C[uad- 
rupeds and men. Though this fac^t has been disputed in certain 
respects, yet I regard it as in the main true, and for the purpose of the 
present argument will accept it as absolutely true. In other words, 
after the oyster the vertebrated fish, like the salmon, came, then the 
crocodile and other reptiles, and in succession lions, horses and similar 
quadrupeds, and finally man. Does such a succession, even if it were 
mathematically true, afford a respectable argument in support of the 
view that each of these classes came from the preceding one, or was a 
modification of it by the process of evolution? Admit that this suc- 
cession was invariably upward, does its invariability establish the 
doctrine of "natural selection?" 

Let us suppose that the man in the moon has come down to earth 
from a laudable desire to learn how matters are managed here. Of 
course he would be invited to dine with the President. The first dish 
will be soup, then fish, afterwards roast beef and other meats, the 
dinner ending with jellies, ice cream and coffee. On the next day he 
dines with the Secretary of State, and is surprised to find the same 
succession of dishes. Each member of the Cabinet treats him precisely 
in the same manner, and so do such of the private citizens as he dines 
with. Being of a scientific turn of mind, he philosophizes, and is soon 
convinced that he has divined the true theory of these phenomena. 
The succession of dishes is invariably the same, and, therefore, it is 
clear that each dish must have been a modification of the preceding 
one. In the laboratory of the cook a certain primordial form of matter 
existed, and through some evolution which he did not precisely under- 
stand, it at first appeared as soup. By continuing the operation this 
substance became partially solidified and took the form of salmon. 
The action being continued by the aid of time, it was so hardened as to 
become roast beef. The operation longer persevered in, broke up the 
consistency of the material somewhat, so that it appeared as jelly and 
ice cream, while certain watery portions, which could not be even par- 
y 



[66] 

tially solidified, remained as coffee. The invariability of this succes- 
sion left no doubt on his mind as to the soundness of his theory. Had 
he not in truth all in this form of evidence that geology gives to the 
evolutionist? On stating his hy[)othesis, however, he was told that 
his theory was so phiusiblc that it was not singular that he should 
have adopted it, but that he was mistaken. That the dinner inva- 
riably began with soup and ended with coffee was merely due to the 
fact that tlie person who arranged the dinner thought that such a 
succession of dishes was better suited to the tastes, appetites and con- 
(stitutions of men than any other arrangement. Does geology furnisii 
to the advocate of "natural selection" a stronger argument than this 
lunar philosopher had? If at one time the earth, from its warmer 
condition, was enveloped in an immense mass of cloudy vapors, so that 
the sunlight was excluded, the creative power might be supposed 
capable of perceiving that it was in its condition well suited to the 
existence of sholl-fish in its waters. After further cooling its vapors 
subsided, and permitted the sunlight to penetrate its ocean, and verte- 
brates, furnished with eyes, could be accommodated; and as the land 
emerged its marshy surface was well-fitted for the comfortable existence 
ofreijtiles. Further hardening rendered it a suitable habitation for 
quadrupeds, that could be well fed on its luxuriant grasses and other 
vegetation. At length it acquired a con<lition fitting it for the growth 
of the cereals, and man was called into being. Such a sup[Kjsition as 
this would not require in the creative power a higher degree of intel- 
ligence than the farmer displays, when, after having newly drained a 
piece of marsh land, seeing it still wet, he uses it for a meadow, and 
after it has been thoroughly dried cultivates it in wheat. 

There has recently been much discussion in relation to the dis- 
covery of the "basis of life," or that point where mere matter first 
assumes the character of vitality. Microscopic examinations show 
that there are certain minute particles of matter designated as ova, 
cells or protoplasms, which manifest a potentiality to be developed into 
plants and animals. They are found to consist of the four elements: 
oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen; but they become food for 
plants only in their combinations of carbonic acid, water, and am- 
monia. In this form they can sustain the growth of the " proto- 
plasms," which constitute plants, while animals can only assimilate 
them secondarily from plants. These protoplasms seem to be so near 
to mere matter that Professor Tyndall said in his address at Belfast, 
that he "passed over" the interval which separated these protoplasms 
from matter itself In other words, he seems to regard matter alone 
as sufficient to constitute vitality in plants and animals, excluding the 
idea that there is any such thing as life other than as a modification 
of matter. 

But do the alleged discoveries sustain this view? It would be but a 
superficial view if we were to assume that the knowledge of the fact that 
the oak came from an acorn, and a fowl from an egg, explained the 
origin of vegetable or animal life. How it was that the acorn had a 
potentiality to germinate into a tree, or the egg to be developed into a 
fowl, would remain still none the less a mystery. The chemist might 



(07) 

place the egg in an exhausted receiver, hermetically seal it, and by 
applying a moderate degree of heat he could deprive it of its vitality or 
potentiality to become a fowl. After this had been done, he would have 
under his control all the material elements of the egg with its nu- 
merous dead protoplasms, but no skill of his could restore its vitality. 
Does not this show that vitality is something more thaii mere matter, 
a something to be added to matter before it can possess the potentiality 
to manifest itself as a living organization ? So is it with the pro- 
toplasms. Professor Tyndall says he passes over the chasm which 
separates his {)rotopIasms from matter. So can the protoplasms also, 
but when they have thus passed they have crossed a chasm over which 
they return not again. 5so man of science can again restore their 
vitality. Their condition is then as hopeless as would be that of the 
Profes.sor himself when he once passed from the living to dead matter. 

Is it not clear, then, that the discovery of protoplasms has not 
enabled us to understand the "basis of life" any better than men did 
centuries ago? How they become living organizations is just as much 
a mystery as the potentiality of the acorn or the egg to produce 
vegetable or animal beings. 

Again, the fact that the microscope does not enable the man of 
science to distinguish the protoplasms of one animal from those of 
another, does not tend to establish the identity of different species. 
It was discovered long ago that animals and vegetables, with slight 
additions, were constituted of these four elements. But no one ever 
a.ssumed that because chemical analysis showed that the flesh of men 
and dogs were composed of these same elements it thus proves that 
men and dogs are identical in species, or must have had a common 
origin. The very fact the protoplasms of different animals cannot be 
distinguished from each other, accompanied by the other fact that the 
protoplasm of each animal invariably produced that animal, and not 
any other, indicates that life, which determines species, is something 
entirely different from mere matter. 

The question may be asked, then, "Why is it that such views have 
attracted of late so much attention, and been adopted by a number of 
persons?" It must be remembered that the minds of many men of 
science in the pursuit of certain inquiries, run in narrow channels, 
and, like the microscopes they use, make small objects appear very 
large; and thus they attach undue importance to some new di.scovery. 
The mass of readers are influenced by the authority of great names, 
and are also fond of a novelty. Their minds are confused by the use 
of terms not well understood. "Natural selection," the "survival of 
the fittest," "evolution," "proptolasms," "monads," "protein," "the 
physical basis of life," "correllation of growth," "correllation of vital 
and physical forces," and similar terms disturb their minds, and 
induce them to believe that there must be something deep and myste- 
rious in such theories, ju.st as the traveler who comes to a stream so 
muddy that he cannot see the bottom, is easily persuaded that it is of 
indefinite depth. Such persons, seeing that they have often been 
surprised by great discoveries in science, become credulous, and ready 
to adopt new theories, however improbable. 



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Mr. Quirk, because Tittlebat Titmouse had, from being a beggar, 
suddenly become the owner of ten thousand a year, was induced to 
believe that the red, green, blue, and purple colors of his hair, pro- 
duced by his brisk application of the various hair-dyes, with which he 
so suddenly surprised his acquaintances, might have been caused by 
the change of his pecuniary condition. 

The several works lately published on these subjects contain much 
valuable scientific information, and, if read as we do " Gulliver's 
Travels" will furnish knowledge as well as amusement. Science, in 
her sphere, gives us an amount of knowledge that cannot be overes- 
timated, but it has utterly failed to explain the origin of life, the con- 
nection of mind and matter, or the manner in which they act on each 
other. 



WATER SPOUTS. 

LECTURE BEFORE THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF 
WASHINGTON, JANUARY, 1877. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



On the 15th day of June, 1876, there fell in the western part of 
North Carolina from forty to sixty water spouts as they are popularly 
termed. The manner of their fall and the facts connected with it are 
of such a character, that I think the phenomena ought to be brought 
to the attention of the scientific world. I will, therefore, so state them 
as probably to make them fairly understood by such persons as take 
an interest in the subject: 

The area of territory on which they fell is embraced in the southern 
portions of the counties of Macon and Jackson, in North Carolina, and 
the adjoining parts of South Carolina and Georgia. The greater por- 
tion of this territory consists of an elevated plateau of an altitude of 
more than three thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is trav- 
ersed irregularl}' by several ridges of mountains of considerable height, 
and has occasionally to be seen detached peaks, the highest of which 
rises above four- thousand (4,000) feet. One of the ledges is the Blue 
Ridge, which divides the waters running into the Atlantic from those 
flowing into the Mississippi. The course of this chain along the plateau 
is very nearly east and west. 

The distance from the spot where the most westerl}'^ of the water 
spouts fell, to that of the most easterly of them, near the border of 
Transylvania county, cannot be less than thirty miles in a direct line, 
while from the position of the most northerly to that of the most south- 
erly, the distance must be fully twenty miles. In other words, the 
water spouts fell irregularly over an area of thirty miles in length by 
twenty miles in breadth. 



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On the day of this fall there was rain over a large area, embracing 
the western portion of North Carolina, and territory in the adjoining 
States. There was in some localities thunder and lightning, but not 
an unusual amount, nor was it remarkable for wind. In fact, in the 
immediate vicinity of some of the water falls, it was described as being 
a still, wet day. 

I will now describe, particularly, one of those "spouts" or water 
falls. Mr. Horatio Conley lives about twelve miles south, and rather 
east of the town of Franklin, in Macon county. His house stands on 
the west side of the Tessantee, a stream of several yards in width, and 
probably fifty yards from the stream. In the afternoon of this day, 
June 15th, 1876, during the rain, which had been falling steadily for 
the greater part of the day, he was surprised to see the stream suddenly 
rise much higher than lie had ever seen it at any previous time. This 
rise was in part produced b}' the falling, two miles above him, of two 
smaller water spouts of which he then knew nothing. Though the 
banks of the stream were high, yet the water rose above them and 
extended into his j^ard, and alarmed him for the safety of his house. 
The stream, however, rapidly subsided into its channel, but was still 
much swollen. On the opposite side of the creek, and immediately in 
front of his house, there is a ravine along which there flows a little 
branch that comes down at right angles to the Tessantee. While he 
and his wife were in the piazza of their house, next to the creek, their 
attention was arrested by a remarkable appearance up this ravine 
distant perhaps one hundred and fifty yards from them. They saw a 
large mass of water and timber, heavy trees floating on the top, which 
appeared ten or fifteen feet high, moving rapidly towards them, as if 
it might sweep directly across the Tessantee and overwhelm them. 
Fortunately, however, sixty or seventy yards beyond the creek the 
ground became comparatively level, and the water expanded itself, 
became thus shallower, and leaving many of the trees strewn for a 
hundred yards along the ground, entered the creek with a moderate 
current. The Tessantee, however, was again so full as to overflow its 
banks, and large trees were carried down it, and left at intervals for a 
mile or more. This sudden rise was caused by the water spout which 
I am now about to describe. It appeared at Mr. Conley's at half-after 
three o'clock in the afternoon. 

At a distance of two and a half miles to the eastward of Mr. Conley's 
there is a ridge known as the Fishhawk Mountain. It extends in a 
direction nearly north and south, and is probably more thfin thirty- 
five hundred feet in altitude above the sea, but it can scarcely exceed 
four thousand feet. Within two or three hundred feet of the crest of 
its ridge two of these water spouts fell, but on opposite sides. I will 
describe that which struck on its western side, and flowed down 
towards Mr. Conley's house. After ascending with considerable diffi- 
culty, chiefly on horseback, but making the upper part of the journey 
on foot, I reached the spot where it fell. The ground was quite steep, 
the surface ascending at the rate of twenty five degrees, probably. 
There was a circular opening in the ground about twelve or fifteen 
feet deep in the centre. It had the figure of almost an exact semi-circla 



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on the upper side, and then extended down the mountain, presenting 
the figure caused by two parallel lines from each of its sides. Across 
the circle it was seventy-five feet wide, and for some distance down it 
maintained about the same width. In the centre of the circle, for forty 
or fifty feet in extent, the rock at the bottom was naked and clean, but 
around the outer edges of the rim or opening, for ten or fifteen feet, 
there was much earth lying. This lay five or six feet below the solid 
ground around it. 

The solid surface around the opening presented a very regular cir- 
cular form, from which had been torn with great force the loose earth 
below. The roots had been all broken squarely off, and the earth 
removed so that the descent was perpendicular for several feet down 
to the loose earth. The whole depression looked as though it might 
have been produced by the sudden fall, with great force, of a column 
of water forty or fifty feet in diameter, which not only cut its way 
down to the solid rock, but also tore loose a mass of surrounding earth 
on which it did not fall directly. That the column of water was not 
as large as the entire opening was evident from another circumstance. 
At the upper part of the opening lay a log somewhat decayed and 
scorched by previous fires. The lower end of this log extended several 
feet over the opening, showing that the water had not struck it, but 
had merely torn away the earth under it. The upper part of the 
opening seemed to form almost a perfect circle, descending perpen- 
dicularly like a wall for several feet in depth. 

Outside of this opening there seemed to have been no disturbance 
whatever on the surface of the ground. On the contrary, the old 
leaves of the previous year lay within two or three inches of the break, 
and little fragments of decaying limbs, half burnt, ot only the weight 
of an ounce or two were undisturbed just at the edges of the break. 
But inside of the depression, and all along its channel, everything 
down to the solid rock below had been swept away by the torrent in 
its course. Hundreds of trees, many of them three feet in diameter 
and an hundred feet in height, were carried along. So were all the 
loose rocks, some of them boulders of several tons in weight. There 
was a clean, broad furrow for more than two miles down to Mr. 
Con ley's. 

Not far from where the spout fell, the ground assumed the form of a 
narrow ravine, with steep sides, along which the current took its way. 
Its course was nearly a direct one, but there were some slight bends 
which caused, in places, trees to be left where they chanced to be 
thrown up on one of the banks. Most of the trees had been torn up 
by the roots, but occasionally a solid oak, three feet in diameter, was 
seen to have been broken squarely off. All' their limbs were gone, 
and not a tree did I see that had not been stripped completely of its 
bark in in its rough journey downward. The current, as it descended, 
must have lost much of its velocity by reason of the constant obstacles 
it encountered from the trees and rocks, and from the gradually 
diminishing steepness of its path. It all along, however, retained 
suflficient momentum to carry not only the trees, but all detached 
boulders, and left the solid rocky strata very clean behind it. 



(71) 

I sought to ascertain, as nearly as possible, what was the probable 
mass or volume of water present. This could be approximated within 
reasonable limits. At the distance of one hundred and fifty yards 
below the place of the fall, there stood on either side of the current two 
trees, which had, from their being protected somewhat by solid rock, 
been left standing, the main force of the current having passed 
between them. These two were seventy-five feet apart. On the 
northern one the line of tlie muddy water was visible to the height 
of twenty feet, while on the southern one it rose to sixteen feet. A 
tree on the north side, scarcely ten feet in the rear of the first named 
tree, was marked only ten feet high, while a fourth, on the south side, 
seven or eight feet in the rear only of the nearer one to the current, 
was untouched by the water. In the middle of the current the ground 
was laid bare to the depth of at least ten feet below the surface on 
which the trees stood, so that the depth of the current, from the 
highest water-mark down to the bottom of the channel, was as much as 
thirty feet. But from the fact that the water had been much higher 
on the two trees, nearest the centre, than it was on those a little in the 
rear; and these first named trees were seventy-five feet apart, it was 
evident that the water in the centre had been still higher, probably 
high enough to increase the depth in the centre to forty feet or more. 
In other words, the stream there presented the appearance of a some- 
what flattened, cylindrical mass. Th^s was due to the fact that in 
addition to the immense impulse it had received from its fall against 
the slanting ground, from which it had bounded as it shot down the 
mountain, it was at the same time descending not less than twenty or 
thirty degrees along the steep ground. It thus moved forward so 
rapidly that it had not time to expand and become level. Fifty yards 
lower down, or two hundred yards from the spot of the fall, this 
current was ninety feet wide and apparently about thirty feet deep. 

Two miles lower down, where it was first noticed by Mr. Conley and 
his wife, and near the termination of the ravine, where it reached the 
more expanded and level ground, it was fully sixty yards wide, and 
in the centre, where I could see the driftwood left on a solid, upright 
rock, it was ten or twelve feet deep. I estimated that its whole volume 
then would be equal to a current forty yards wide and six feet deep, 
all the way across. In other words, a plane, cutting the current per- 
pendicularly, and at right angles, would show a surface of eighty 
square yards. 

To determine the whole mass of the water, it was necessary to know 
how far up the ravine the current extended. Mr. Conley said he 
thought the current required fifteen minutes to run by. His wife said 
it did not seem so long to her. She thought it might have been run- 
ning at its full height as long a time as it would have been necessary 
to enable her to walk a couple of hundred yards at her usual rate of 
walking, probably three or four minutes. The descent of the ground 
at the termination of the ravine, was perhaps as much as two hundred 
feet to the mile, and certainly not less than one hundred feet. The 
French Broad river, in Buncombe, has an average fall of eighteen feet 
to the mile for some distance. I have observed that when there was a 



(72) 

freshet, the drift wood, at a portion of the stream less rapid than this 
average, would be carried along at the speed of four or five miles to 
the hour. As the descent of the ground, at the termination of the 
ravine opposite Conley's, was more than ten times as great, it is not 
probable that the current of rushing water moved less than ten miles 
per hour, or as fast as the speed of a cantering horse. This would be 
equal to one mile in six minutes. In a single minute, therefore, the 
current would flow nearly three hundred yards. If, then, we assume, 
instead of the estimate of Mrs. Conly, that it was running three or 
four minutes, that it was flowing only a single minute, then we have a 
mass of water three hundred yards long, and forty yards wide, with 
a depth of two yards. Hence this mass would contain twenty-four 
thousand cubic yards of water. From my observations, at several 
points above, I think it cjuite probable that there was this much, and 
unquestionably there must have been more than ten thousand cubic 
yards. 

We are next to consider the interesting question as to how such a 
quantity of water was precipitated near the top of the Fishhawk 
Mountain, at the place where it fell. Of course it could not have 
fallen gradually as water descends from a cascade, because in that 
event it must have flowed away gradually, and would not have risen 
so high oa the trees on the steep mountain side, nor could it have 
moved with such a force as to tear up the largest trees and carry them 
along with great masses of heavy rock. Such an effect would not have 
been produced even if it had not moved much faster than it was doing 
when seen two miles below at Conley's. All around the upper edge of 
the opening the roots of the trees were broken off abruptly, and the 
earth burst away perpendicularly down in such a manner as it could 
not have been done by a stream of water falling as we see it at a cas- 
cade. Everything indicated that there had been a sudden and violent 
shock, such as the fall of a large mass of water, precipitated from a 
great height, might have caused. In the centre of the opening fifteen 
feet of solid earth had been removed so as to expose the rock at the 
bottom, and this had been done so suddenly and violently that for a 
circle of seventy-five feet the earth in mass had been torn away leav- 
ing an upright, compact, perpendicular wall standing. If we think of 
this water as falling in a solid mass its force may be compared with 
that of a fifteen-inch cast-iron shot which, with the charge used for 
the monitor guns, striking perpendicularly, would scarcly have pene- 
trated the earth down to the rock. And yet the height to which it 
rose immediately below would indicate that it came down in one 
immense mass. 

If the column were thirty feet in diameter it would have been three 
hundred yards, or nine hundred feet in height, to enable it to contain 
as much as twenty-four thousand cubic yards. Even if we reduce the 
estimate to the lesser amount of ten thousand cubic yards only, 
still the column must have been more than three hundred feet in 
height, and if it had only this length and fell from a moving cloud, 
instead of falling in one place, it, partaking of the motion of the 
cloud, should have been rather strewn along the ground. 



(78) ■ 

If a cloud were moving at the rate of eight miles an hour, and one 
is seldom seen that is not moving faster than this, it would travel 
more than two hundred yards in one minute. If, therefore, only six 
seconds elapsed while the column was falling, its top should have 
struck the earth sixty feet in advance of where the bottom touched. 
Probably onl}' one or two seconds elapsed while it was falling after it 
first touched the earth. 

The most difficult question, however, is how such a mass of water was 
so collected in the atmosphere. We know very well that the watery 
vapor in the air is condensed into drops, but then these drops when 
they attain a size that renders them barely visible to the eye, descend 
to the earth, and when they are the size of the common pea they fall 
with considerable rapidity. One cubic yard of water weighs more 
than sixteen hundred pounds. If a cubic yard were collected in the 
atmosphere, why should it remain suspended there until ten thousand 
other yards joined it, so that they all might come down together ? 

It may be said that a violent wind so!netimes raises timber and 
other substances having a specific gravity nearly as great as that of 
water, and that, therefore, the wind might have held up this 
cubic yard. But we know that air only seems capable of thus sustain- 
ing heavy bodies when it is in violent motion, and the tendency of 
such motion is to scatter water, rather than retain it in masses. Sand 
and dust, when raised by the wind, are scattered about instead of 
being collected into solid masses. Again, if water at a high elevation 
starts downward in a body before it falls far it divides into drops. 
The cascade at Lauter Brunnen, after a descent of nine hundred feet, 
falls in a shower, If, therefore, it be assumed that this water was in 
some mode collected together in the upper part of the highest cumulous 
cloud ever observed, in a descent of three or four miles through a moving 
and probably stormy atmosphere, how was it that it retained its com- 
pact form? But, then, to account for its having been collected in the 
upper regions is quite as difficult as to explain how it should be gotten 
together below. The air above being much more rarified would off'er 
even less resistance to the passage of the water through it, and its fall 
therefore ought to be only the more rapid. To render this point 
clearer, let the following facts be considered ; If air at a temperature 
of seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit be saturated with water, it would, 
if cooled down to thirty-five degrees, let go a portion of that water. It 
has been calculated that the amount thus liberated, compared with 
the volume of air, is so small that a single cubic yard of water will 
only be furnished by 62,500 yards of air. If we assume for the tem- 
perature of the air in that region seventy-five degrees, at the height of 
three thousand feet, we shall probably be not far out of the way. If 
that air, by being elevated to a great height, or by some other meansj 
were cooled down to thirty-five degrees, or but little above freezing, it 
would give out its water in the proportion above stated. Let it be 
assumed, then, that a cloud, the base of which was three thousand feet 
above the sea, extending upwards for three miles. Then suppose a 
section of it in the form of a square pillar, the base of which was one 
yard square, to be extended up three miles, in this pillar there would 
10 



(74) 

be contained five thousand two hundred and eighty cubic yards of air. 
If this were cooled down forty degrees, or from seventy-five degrees to 
thirty-five degrees, it would liberate a quantity of water. If all the 
water thus condensed were collected together it would be insufficient 
to make a cubic yard of water. In fact twelve such columns would 
be required to furnish, in this manner, one cubic yard of water. 
Again, when this first column had lost its water it must be moved out 
of its position to give the other columns an opportunity to take its 
place in succession, and in their turns give up their water to produce 
one single cubic yard. 

Again, as to the water condensed in the upper portions of the air, 
some time must be allowed it to descend through three miles of space. 
A cannon shot moves at the rate of about one mile in five seconds, 
and would require fifteen seconds, therefore, to pass through three 
miles of space. But as we see even the larger drops descending near 
the earth it is evident that they are moving many times slower than 
this speed. Certainly they would require more than one minute to 
make this descent of three miles. But why should tlie drops in the 
lower part of the column not descend and fall in advance of the others, 
as we see the rain do? But again, this water in the lower part of the 
pillar must wait until each one of the twelve pillars has had time to 
thus give up its water, and this would require twelve minutes. And 
why, it may be asked, does the water at the lower part of the cloud 
wait in mass for this ojjeration to be completed? And then when one 
cubic yard of water has been collected what is to sustain it until ten 
thousand more cubic yards join it before it commences its descent to 
the earth? To obtain this amount of ten thousand cubic yards of 
water a volume of air must be drained equal to a mass of three hun- 
dred and forty-seven yards square and three miles in height. How 
is all this water to be gotten together in a single mass? 

It is said, however, that storms dash the clouds together and that 
the water is thus concentrated. But each portion of the air resists 
pressure from that which surrounds it, and of course retains the drops 
of water suspended in it, so that however the clouds may be moved 
along by the wind the rain drops will be carried about with them. It 
is not seen that in stormy weather, at the surface of the earth, rain is 
any more concentrated than when it falls in calms. But as the clouds 
from which water-spouts fall often take the form of inverted cones, or 
are funnel-shaj)ed, it is by some supposed that the water is thus collected 
and discharged at the point. A funnel made of metal or glass will collect 
drops that fall on it and convey them by the force of gravity down to 
the centre, but clouds have not manifested that capacity. On the con- 
trary it is seen that drops of water fall through clouds, whatever may 
be their shape. There has been no mention of any cloud so dense 
that the water would run along its surface. 

The point may be illustrated by this case: If a bucket be filled with 
muddy water and allowed to remain at rest for a while the mud will 
settle, but it will be seen to constitute a stratum over the bottom of 
the vessel. If, on the other hand, the water is shaken violently the 
mud remains diffused through the water. Even if a rotatory motion is 



(75) 

given to the water, by stirring it around with a stick, this motion will 
not cause the mud to form a column in the centre of the vessel. Why 
then should a cloud with a whirling centrifugal motion collect so 
great a mass of water together? In fact the centrifugal motion some- 
times manifested would tend necessarily to throw the drops of water, 
by reason of their specific gravity, away from the centre of the moving 
mass instead of bringing them together. If the whirling motions 
were so rapid as to produce a complete vacuum at the centre (a condi- 
tion probably in fact never produced) all the water being denser than 
the air must be driven further outward by the centrifugal force. But 
even if it were miraculously collected in the centre, the particles, as they 
reached the vacuum, would only fall the more rapidly, in fact as fast 
as lead or any other heavy substance would do, instead of waiting there 
for other particles of water to join them before they started downward. 
These suggestions are made to render it evident that the mechanical 
force of whirling clouds is not sufficient to account for the phenomena 
observed. 

We must find some force capable of bringing together instantly, as 
it were, the water contained in a large volume of air, or else an 
influence must be ascertained sufficiently potent to counteract the most 
constant and generally recognized force in nature, namely, the force 
of gravity. As the atmosphere is the only recognized source from 
which this water could be collected, it must, therefore, have been 
instantl}' drawn together, or if it were slowly collected, then the force 
of gravity must for a time have been suspended, or counteracted while 
the process was in progress, and until it was completed. 

Several writers have attributed water spouts to electricity, and have 
referred to the fact that they were, in some instances, accompanied with 
remarkable displays of lightning. But it is also true that in other 
cases no extraordinary electrical phenomena were observed; and even 
if much electricity was manifested, there might be a question as to 
whether it might not be merely an effect, rather than a cause. Elec- 
tricity, however, resembles water spouts in this respect: that they are 
both involved in mystery. Where a force is of such a character that 
it cannot be defined, or limited, there is room to exaggerate its powers. 
Sir Walter Scott said that every remarkable event in Scotland, the 
authorship of which was unknown, was attributed by the people either 
to Sir William Wallace, to the great magician, Michael Scott, or to 
the devil. Electricity and the Prince of Darkness have this common 
quality, that they are both enveloped in great mystery, and it might 
be added, too, that they possess this further resemblance, that close 
contact with either is shunned rather than courted. 

From the fact that the leaves and like fragments of wood, close to 
the line of the opening, where the spout had fallen, were not moved, 
it was evident that there was no commotion in the atmosphere there. 
Any considerable disturbance or agitation that it underwent must 
have been at least above the tall trees standing around. 

But the difficulty of explaining this is rather increased when we 
remember that probably more than fifty similar falls occurred on that 
day within an area of thirty miles in length by twenty broad. On the 



(76) 

opposite side of the Fishhawk mountain, and only a few hundred 
yards distant, there fell another water spout. Though I only saw its 
furrow or channel from a distance, yet it appeared to present, and is 
represented as showing, similar features to the one I have described. 
Two smaller ones fell two miles above Mr. Con ley's. There were 
eleven in all that fell on the northern or northwestern side of the Blue 
Ridge, while credible persons tell me that there must have been forty or 
fifty that fell on its south side in portions of North and South Carolina. 
As far as they were described to me the features appeared to have been 
similar to the one I examined. Those on the south side of the Blue 
Ridge are represented to have fallen between the hours of twelve and one 
o'clock, while Mr. Conley and his wife said that which I examined fell 
at half-after three o'clock. The condition of the elements, which pro- 
duced those phenomena, on that day extended over an area of six 
hundred square miles. That region has been settled by white people 
for more than fifty years, and within that period there have been many 
stormy days and many heavy rains, with freshets, and yet in that 
time no other water spouts had fallen. Even if such had fallen within 
the last three or four centuries the traces would be still visible. Why 
should such a condition have then existed on the 15th of June last? 

But, again, there has been one other remarkable fajl of waterspouts 
in the western part of North Carolina. On the 7th day of July, 1847, 
at a place in what is now Clay county, nearly due west from Mr. 
Conley's and about forty miles distant, there fell a number of water 
spouts. 

Though I only have seen the channels cut by them at a distance, yet 
they have been well described to me. Silas McDowell, Esq., a highly 
intelligent gentleman of Macon county, visited the locality soon after 
the fall and gave me a minute description of the appearances, which 
he has since repeated to me. Four miles north of Fort Hembrie, in 
Clay county, is a little mountain known as Fires Mountain. It is 
probably three thousand feet high, but as I have not seen it for many 
years I may be mistaken. Mr. McDowell counted thirteen spouts 
which had fallen, at short distances from each other, around the top of 
the mountain. He described more particularly the largest one. There 
was, just where it fell, an opening ten or fifteen feet deep, cut perpen- 
dicularly to the solid rock. He said it seemed to have fallen with 
such force that lumps of mud had been thrown up on the trees stand- 
ing around for some distance, but that just around the opening the 
ground showed no sign of disturbance, and he especially expressed his 
surprise at the fact that the leaves all around the opening, within less 
than a foot of it, and in fact at its very edge lay in their places. His 
statement corresponds with what I saw at the place near Conley's. 
Mr. McDowell said that he followed the course of the water to the foot 
of the mountain, and that it had carried away everything down to the 
solid rock. Some of the smaller spouts had joined this one, and at the 
base of the mountain there was a pile of timber, and other debris, an 
hundred feet high, in which were seen trees of one hundred feet long, 
some of them with their roots upward. Mr. McDowell says the furrows 



(77) 

made by these several spouts varied in width from sixty feet down to 
twelve feet. 

Dr. B. W. Moore says that he and his brother counted a much larger 
number of these spouts, and that the ground over which they fell was 
two miles in length by one in breadth. He says that though he lived 
five miles from the place, and though no lightning struck near him, 
yet both he and his mother felt very much excited, as though they 
had been higlily electrified. The day has been described as being 
hot, sultry and close until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when 
two clouds met at the top of the Fires Mountain. After they came 
together there was a whirling and spinning around in them, while 
they covered the top of the mountain, and presented a dark mass, and 
seemed to divide into fragments in whirling motion. 

It seems from this statement that the phenomena were, in most 
respects, similar to tliose exhibited in the occurrences of last June. 
The fact, in both instances, that the leaves and light brush close 
around the openings were undisturbed, proves that there was no 
violent agitation of the air at the surface of the earth. When these 
facts are presented persons will, in some instances, be inclined to 
attribute the phenomena to the clouds striking against the mountains, 
but neither the Fishhawk nor the Fires Mountain is, perhaps, as much 
as four thousand feet in height, while there are in North Carolina 
several hundred higher, and not less than fifty which rise six thou- 
sand feet above the sea level, and yet none of these higher mountains 
have been thus visited, exposed as they are to storms and the contact 
of clouds. Again, it is well known that water spouts are seen more 
frequently at sea than on land. 

So many facts similar to those I have described have been noticed 
that they cannot fairly be denied. A century ago so-called scientific 
men, because they could not account for such facts, denied that meteoric 
stones fell to the earth, and resorted to ingenious theories to explain 
how it happened that people imagined they had seen them fall. At 
this time no one doubts but that metallic and stony masses do fall to 
the earth. So now, if some satisfactory explanation can be given of 
the origin of water spouts, men will not only recognize the fact of 
their existence, but become ready to accept as true, perhaps, the state- 
ment of the fall of frogs, fish, and even of snakes, from the upper 
regions of the atmosphere. Until this has been done, however, these 
phenomena will rather remind men of the declaration in Genesis that 
"the waters below the firmament were divided from the waters above 
it," and "that the windows of heaven were opened" at the period of 
the deluge. 



Volcanic Action in North Carolina. 



LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE WASHINGTON 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, MAY, ISU. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



More than thirty years a^o my attention was directed to statements 
that a certain mountain in the northern part of Haywood Connty, North 
Carolina, was, at intervals of two or three years, as^itated and hroken into 
fragments along a portion of its surface. In the latter part of the year 
1848, 1 visited the region, and soon afterwards wrote a description of the 
mountain, which was iirst published in the National Intelligencer^ of 
the date of November 15th, 1848. As the article occupies two or three 
columns of the paper, giving a minute description of the locality, its 
minerals, and the appearance as presented at that time, with suggestions 
as to the probable cause of the phenomena, I will not detain you with 
its reproduction. 

The material facts may be briefly stated as follows: Between the Blue 
Ridge, which in North Carolina separates the waters falling into the 
Atlantic, from those discharged into the Mississippi, and the great chain 
on the Tennessee border, designated in its course by such names as Iron, 
Unaka and Smoky, tliere is an elevated plateau of more than two 
hundred miles in length, with an average breadth of fifty miles. The 
beds of the larger streams are two thousand feet above the sea, and the 
general level of the country, exclusive of the mountain ranges, may be 
estimated at twenty-five hundred feet above tide-water. 

Geologically considered, it is next to the Lake Superior region, re- 
garded as among the oldest on the surface of the globe. Granite in 
its varieties is seen in many places, but the predominating surface rocks 
are of the older metamorphic strata, gneiss, and mica slate are the most 
prevalent, though hurnblendic and magnesian rocks are abundant, with 
occasionally large veins of quartz, and indeed such a variety of minerals 
as perhaps no other region of equal extent produces. 

Haywood county joins the State of Tennesse on its northern border, 
and the seat of the disturbance is within less than twenty miles of the 
line of that State. A considerable range of mountains extends north 
and south along the line which separates the counties of Buncombe and 
Haywood. From the west side of this extends a i-idge which terminates 
near the head of Fines creek. A quarter of a mile from its western end, 
as one moves up it towards the east, is the locality referred to. The 
effect of the disturbance is visible near the crest of the ridge and extends 



(79) 

in a direction nearly clue sontli, down the side of the little monntain, 
four or five hundred yards, to the level ground, and across it for some 
distance and alono; the elevations beyond. The whole extent may be a 
mile in length, wMth a breadth of not more than a couple of hundred 
yards at any point. The top of the ridge, M'here evidences of violence 
are seen, is perhaps three or four hundred feet higher than the ground 
below. There are cracks in the solid granite of which the ridge 
appears to be composed, but the chief evidences of violence were ob 
servable a little soutli of the crest. From thence along the side of the 
mountain as, one descends, there were chasms, none of them above four 
feet in width, generally extending north and south, but also occasionally 
seen in all directions.' All the' large trees had been thrown down. 
There were a number of little hillocks, the largest eiglit or ten feet high 
and fifty or sixty feet in diameter. They were usually surrounded by 
what appeared to have been a narrow crevice. On tbeir sides the 
saplings grew perpendicularly to tlie surface of the ground, but obliquely 
to the horizon, making it manifest that they liad attained some size 
before the hillocks liad been elevated. I observ^ed a large poplar or tulip 
tree, which had been split through its centre, so as to leave one-half of 
it standing tliirty or forty feet high. The crack or opening under it, 
was not an inch wide, but could be traced for a hundred yards, making 
it evident that there had been an opening of sufficient width to split 
the tree, and tliat then the sides of the chasm had returned to their 
original position witliout having slipped so as to prevent the contact of 
the broken roots. As indicating the sudden violence with which the 
force acted, a large mass of detached granite afi^'orded a striking illus- 
tration. From its size I estimated that it might have weighed two 
thousands tons. It seemed from its shape to have originally been broken 
out of the side of the mountain above, and to have rolled in mass a 
hundred yards downward. It lay directly across one of the chasms two 
or three feet in width, and had been broken into three large fragments, 
whicli, however, were not separated a foot from each other. The irregu- 
larities of the lines of fracture were conformable, and rendered it certain 
that the mass had been broken by an instantaneous shock of great 
violence, which did not continue to act long enougli to remove the frag- 
ments to a distance In like manner a blast of gunpowder often breaks 
a rock into fragments, without removing the pieces out of their places, 
the narrow fissures caused by the explosion, permitting the gasses to 
escape easily. All persons who saw this locality immediately after 
shocks spoke of the fact that every stone or fragment of wood had been 
lifted out of its former bed. 

When I was there I was told that three years had elapsed since the 
last previous shock. They were first noticed about fhe year 1812, and 
usually repeated at intervals of two or three years. In 1851, I visited 
tlie locality again, having been informed that a feeble jar had occurred. 
As soon as I arrived at tlie locality, I was struck with the ti uthfulness 
of what many persons had told me, that after each shock the appearance 
of the place was so much changed that it did not at all resemble itself. 
On this occasion, thouo-h the shock had been a feeble one, I found the 
appearances very diflerent. The greatest evidences ol violence were 
near the foot of the ridge, the branch having been somewhat turned out 



(80) 

of its course, Near this place a rock, of considerable size, had been 
thrown np and had only partially settled back, owing to the closing of 
the opening under it, so that the former earth marks were seen several 
feet above the ground on its sides. 

In the year 1867, I saw the locality again. A number of shocks had 
in the meantime occurred, and the appearances were very different from 
what they had been. From the top of the ridge to the base it seemed 
a mass of rocks, most of the earth having been carried away. The 
depression at the top was greater, while the successive jars had, under 
the action of the force of gravity, moved the mass downwards, and had 
forced she stream still further away from the hill The violence had 
at one point extended itself a little further to the east. A large oak 
tree of great age and four or five feet in diameter, had been entirely 
split open from root to top, and thrown down so that the two halves lay 
several feet apart. 

As already intimated, the mineral substances resemble those of this 
region of country generally. The top of the ridge appears to be a mass of 
granite, in which the feldspar predominates, with occasionally segregated 
veins of quartz of small size. Some of the quartz contained thin seams 
of specular iron, and there are within three or four miles, two deposits 
of magnetic iron. Some hornblende was visible about the spot. I 
know of no volcanic rocks in hundreds of miles of this locality. The 
only sedimentary rocks are the conglomerates, and secondary limestone 
in the vicinity of the Warm Springs, fifteen miles distant, near the 
French Broad river, in a basin or gorge fifteen hundred feet lower than 
this locality. 

The extent and configuration of the ground acted on, the long inter- 
vals between the shocks, for a period of nearly a century past, and of the 
absence of heat and of the continuous escape of gasses, rendered it evi- 
dent that these disturbances were not due to such a merely local cause, 
as the combustion at a short distance below the surface of a bed of 
infiammable mineral substances. Though in the opinion of Mr. Fox and 
others, there are electric currents in certain mineral veins, yet no obser- 
vations heretofore made would justify us in attributing such phenomena 
to electricity. 

It seemed more plausible to adopt the view that these shocks were 
due to a low manifestation of volcanic action. If a long narrow chasm 
had been produced by some former earthquake, which extended to the 
heated mass below, this chasm might be filled with heated gases, which 
did not readily find a vent for escape, until they increased in quantity and 
tension so as to break through the strata immediately above them. 
Coming upward they might give the rocks nearer the surface a violent 
jar, which would continue but for a moment, and cease because the 
gasses escaped through the various fissures created. Such things might 
possibly occur at long intervals, after the manner in which Sir Charles 
Lyell accounts for the Geysers, or intermittent hot springs. 

It has been often said that volcanic action is limited to areas near the 
sea. Though such is generally true, yet Humboldt had no doubt but 
that there is in Asia, an active volcano more than thirteen hundred miles 
east of the Caspian Sea, and still further distant from both the northern 



(81) 

and southern oceans. Comparatively recent lavas are found in the 
Rocky Mountains, six hundred miles from the ocean. 

In my former publication, it was suggested that if the phenomena at 
this point were due to volcanic action, similar disturbances would be 
noticed at other localities in the Alleghany range. I was soon informed 
that three or four years previously in the south-eastern part of Macon 
county, between the Tuckasegee river and the Cowee Mountain, the 
ground was shaken violently for several minutes. A few days after- 
wards some persons discovered a fresh chasm two or three feet wide, 
which extended more than a mile. This was in the month of June, and 
they said that the leaves and branches of timber immediately above the 
chasm, in places, presented the appearance of having been scorched. 
Though I was not able to visit the place, yet from the character of my 
informants, I do not doubt but that the facts were as above stated. 

I have also been informed that in the county of Cherokee, in the year 
1829, or thereabouts, tlie Valley River Mountain was cleft open 
for a considerable distance, during a violent shaking of the earth 
in that vicinity. The chasm though partially filled up is represented as 
still visible. 

Mr. Silas McDowell, of Macon county, a highly respectable and intel- 
ligent gentleman, accustomed to observe and write on such subjects, has 
stated recently in a paper published in Asheville, that many years since, 
there was a violent shock in the neighborhood where he resides, during 
which a chasm was opened on the north side of the mountain which 
separates the EUejay waters from those of the Sugar Fork river. He 
states that the opening is still visible. This locality is eight or ten miles 
to the south-east of Franklin, in Macon county. 

About three years since I heard from many persons, that for several 
weeks smoke continued to issue from a small crevice in the rock, in 
Madison county. Not long afterwards I went to the place, and though 
the smoke had previously ceased to issue, yet there was evidence that the 
locality had at some time, probably during the present century, been 
subjected to violence that had changed the outlines of the ground and 
surface rocks. This spot is about fifteen miles east of the Haywood 
Mountain, and about as far from the "Warm Springs to the northwest 
of it. 

Lastly, we have to notice the disutrbance of the Bald and Stone 
mountains. They are situated six or eight miles to the east of the Blue 
Ridge. Between the head waters of the Catawba and those of the 
Broad river, there extends for many miles eastward a range of moun- 
tains attaining the height, in places, of four thousand feet. The Bald 
and Stone mountains, from their appearance, are probably the highest 
part of this ridge, and nearly equidistant from the Catawba and Broad 
rivers. My information with reference to them is derived entirely from 
conversations with a number of gentlemen, and from the accounts pub- 
lished in the newspapers. The first shocks were perceived on the 10th 
of February last, and they were for the first month or two more frequent 
than they have since been. During the last two months they have 
occurred at intervals of a week or two, but have been rather more 
violent than the average. Within the last five months probably a hun- 
dred shocks, accompanied wdth noises, have occurred. 
11 



(82) 

The distance from this point to the A^alley River Mountain, in Cher- 
okee, nearly due west, is more than one hundred miles in a direct line. 
From the mountain in Haywood, to reach the parallel of latitude passing 
through the mountain near Ellejay, in Macon, one must travel more than 
thirty miles south. It is thus manifested that there is a belt of country 
more than a hundred miles in extent, from east to west, by thirt}' in 
breadth, in which such disturbances are observed^ In the present state 
of scientific knowledge, it ma}' not be an easy task to offer an explana- 
tion of the causes which will be generally accepted as satisfactory. 

Sir Cliarles Lyell has with great ingenuity and an an-ay of plausible 
arguments, advanced the opinion that the changes which the earth's 
surface has undergone, have been produced by causes w^iich are now 
acting to as great an extent as they have ever done in the past. To use his 
own striking language, instead of representing nature as "prodigal of 
violence and parsimonious of time" he would reverse the proposition. 
Without our adopting this theory, whicli does not seem tenable, it is 
nevertheless evident that the earth is far from being in a state of rest, and 
that its surface, judging from the observations heretofore made, appears 
to be undergoing changes, doubtless due to its internal condition. 
While a portion of Greenland, six hundred miles in length, from north 
to south, and of the coast of Italy near the temple of Jupiter Serapis, 
are slowly sinking below the waters of the sea. in the northwest of 
Europe from the North Cape to Sweden, a distance of a thousand miles, 
the land is rising at the rate of a few feet in a century. Again, while 
an area of one hundred thousand square miles in Chili, has been perma- 
nently raised as much as three feet by the shock of a single earthquake, 
a large tract of two thousand square miles in extent, in Hindoostan, has 
been sunk with the houses on it below the waters of the Indian Ocean. 
Between those two classes of violence, which represent the extremes of 
slow and sudden action, there may be many degrees of force greater or 
less. 

Is it at all improbable that owing to some condition of tlie interior of the 
earth, there may be a change in progress in this portion of the Alleghanies, 
more rapid than those observed in Greenland or the north of Europe, and 
yet falling short of such violence as great earthquakes and volcanoes have 
developed? If this portion of North Carolina were sinking into the 
molten mass below, solid strata might be brought in contact with 
matter so hot as to be decomposed in part, with the evolution of gaseous 
matter. If, on the other hand, there were an upheaval in progress, of 
this region, which seems to be the more probable assumption, then the 
pressure from below might occasionally cause cracks or fissures in the 
solid strata near the surface. Into such fissures of course the melted 
matter would be injected and by its great heat fuse some of the solid 
strata, and partially decompose them. In this manner not only would 
their water of crystalization, and such streams as it might come in con- 
tact with, be converted into steam, but hydrogen, carbonic acid, sulphu- 
rous compounds and other gaseous substances, would be liberated in 
great volume. Filling as they do, the upper portion of the fissures, as their 
volume and tension from heat increased, they would produce other frac- 
tures and explosions, until they finally escaped through openings near 
the surface. If, from any cause these openings should be closed, then 



(83) 

the gasses thus confined would, from time to time, so increase in volume, 
or quantity, as to generate periodical explosions such as occur in the 
Haywood Mountain. 

Probably in the vicinity of Stone Mountain there may, among the 
rocky masses and gorges near it, have already been opened fissures 
through which gasses may escape. 

That there will be an eruption of lava, the phenomena hitherto 
observ^ed, afford very little grounds for apj^rehending. At the great 
silver mine near Guanaxuato, in Mexico, there were almost continuously 
for three weeks, loud noises resembling the discharges of artillery under 
ground. They were, however, unattended with any agitation of the 
earth or other manifestations of violence. 

At Mt. Cenis and otiier localities in the Alps, as well as in some parts 
of the United States, noises and shakings of the earth have been repeated 
irregularly for considerable periods of time. Before the eruption of 
lava at Jorillo, there were continuously for three months, terrific noises 
accompanied with violent agitation of the earth. For some days small 
elevations had appeared at the surface, and on the day preceding the 
eruption fine ashes began to fall. 

After continuous agitation of the ground increasing in violence at 
any locality threatened, the next indications of volcanic action would 
probabl}^ be, the escape of gasses, steam, mud, ashes, hot rocks projected 
into the air, and finally the eruption of lava. It is highly improbable 
that there would occur any such disturbances as might endanger the 
lives of the residents, until the agitation had become more violent and 
incessant, and followed by some other of the phenomena mentioned. 

When we take into account these indications at different points in the 
North Carolina mountains, it seems evident that there is beneath the 
surface a condition of things that extends over a considerable area. A 
portion of the globe which, from its geological structure, ought to be 
regarded as being as stable as any part of our planet, is nevertheless not 
free from change. Whether this is to be regarded as due to the dimin- 
ishing force, which, at one time was sufficient to heave up this tract of 
country, with all its mountain chains, or wliether it is to be considered 
as evidence of a gradual return of that volcanic action which manifests 
itself still elsewhere, to so great an extent, it is perhaps difficult to 
decide until further observations have been made. Is it not of sufficient 
interest to justify the managers of the Coast surve_y, or some other com- 
petent agency, to make such careful measurements of the height of 
certain points, as to ascertain within the next twenty-five or fifty years, 
whether any, and to what extent, changes may be occurring in this 
region ? 



FARMING AND COOKERY. 



LETTER TO COL. JOHN D. WHITFORD, EDITOR OF THE 
" STATE x\GRICULTURAL JOURNAL." 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 

Raleigh, May 15, 1875. 
Colonel J. D. Whitford — 

Dear Sir: You are kind enough to express a wish that I should 
write you an article on some subject suitable for i\\Q State Agricultural 
Journal of which I am gratified to observe you have taken charge. 
Though not myself a cultivator of the soil, yet one who has traveled 
much and observed somewhat, may occasionally make suggestions 
interesting to your readers. 

I see in your paper many advertisements of fertilizers, and have 
often heard discussions on the subject of the best methods of improving 
lands. I have observed two modes of using manures very unlike in 
themselves, and followed by very different results. When driving out 
of Rome one day in an open carriage, the driver paused for a few 
moments at the outer edge of the city. Immediately opposite me on 
the left side there were two women with white aprons on a piazza, and 
in front of a house adjoining this several men were at work. Suddenly 
the younger of the two women came running to the carriage, as I 
supposed probably to speak to the driver before he started again. She, 
however, got down on her knees, extended her apron forward on the 
ground, and with her hands rapidly drew into it, fresh and clean as it 
was, a pile of manure just dropped. As soon as she had scraped in 
every particle of it, she gathered up the edges of the apron and started 
back with the load. I heard a laugh among the men, and on looking 
towards them, I saw one of them, who had a bucket and a shovel in 
his hand, and who had started to secure the manure. The time he 
lost in getting hold of his utensils enabled the woman, who was already 
equipped, to carry off the prize, and the laugh was wholly at his 
expense. 

I had a momentary feeling of surprise, but on reflection said, "This 
will pay." It would not, perhaps, require more than ten minutes of 
labor to restore the hands and apron to a condition of cleanliness, 
while the article secured might be a dinner's worth of vegetables for 
several persons. 

Such was the Italian mode. And next consider the other, or Bun- 
combe, mode. An intelligent citizen of that famous county lived in 



(85) 

the beautiful Swananoa Valley, and a clear mountain stream, called 
Beetree, ran just in front of his house. As the surface of the stream 
was almost level with the surface of the ground, my fellow-citizen being 
of good intellect and considerable reading, saw on reflection that he 
could with little trouble utilize its waters. He constructed his stable 
just as near to it as possible, and then cut a slight ditch to the stream, 
and with the aid of a hastily made gate of boards, he could at will let the 
water into his stable. When, therefore, his stable became rather full 
of manure, he had only to turn his horses on the pasture for a day, 
raise his little gate, and in a few minutes the stream of water carried 
everything away, and left his stable much cleaner than it would have 
been had he used a mattock and spade. His neighbors all admired his 
ingenuit}' in having been able to plan such a labor saving operation. 
Indeed, this operation brings to the mind of the classic reader one of 
the most famous achievements of the great Hercules. 

Which of these two methods is most advantageous to a countr}'? 
Italy is certainly the most beautiful region that I have yet beheld, but 
this is not entirely due to its natural features, wonderful as they are. 
Old Buncombe and its surroundings possess a beauty marvelous to the 
human eye, but Italy has had certain adventitious aids that place it 
far in advance. 

No mere selection and arrangement of words will convey to those 
who have not seen it an adequate idea of the richness and variety of 
its vegetation. Every foot of ground seems to have been used in the 
best manner to produce in the greatest abundance grain and grass, 
tree and vine. No land is given to division fences. Even the roads, 
finer than any others in the world, are allowed to interfere as little as 
possible with production. These roads, macadamized in the best 
manner, with their surfaces as smooth as daily sweeping can render 
them, have, at intervals of twent}' yards on each side, octagonal stone 
pillars, immediatel}" outside of which are rows of Lombardy poplars. 
But these poplars have their limbs trimmed off so as to remind one of 
the old fashioned May ])ole. The tufts of branches at the top are suf- 
fered to grow, while such limbs as shoot out from the sides are annually 
trimmed away and converted into fuel. In rear of the trees are shallow 
ditches, which in the month of May, on their bottoms and sides, were 
covered wiih a good coat of grass. The muleteers paid a small sum 
for the privilege of letting their mules get their dinners in these 
ditches. These animals, left for the time by themselves, continued to 
graze, without ever attempting to step out into the half-grown wheat 
and rich cultivated grasses near them. 

As I looked at the country around Capua, I ceased to wonder that 
Hannibal and his veteran Africans preferred staying there, to march- 
ing against Marcellus and Scipio. 

When one travels through Buncombe, the landscapes make a dif- 
ferent impression on him. The distant valleys and green and pictu- 
resque mountains fully satisfy him, but he sees near him, often 
exhausted hillsides furrowed with gulleys, which, when first cleared, 
produced sixty or seventy bushels of corn to the acre. As elsewhere 
in North Carolina, the impression is produced on his mind that the land 



{8Q) 

even that has been cleared, is not utilized to the extent of one-fourth 
of its capacity. When I ask why North Carolina is not like Italy, the 
ready reply is, that we have not the labor to do the work required to 
produce such a result. This is undoubtedly true. While land is 
superabundant with us labor is scarce. What, then, ought we to do? 
Clearly, we ought to save labor as much as possible, or rather make 
the labor we have effect the greatest practicable result. But, in fact, 
the opposite policy has been usually pursued in those parts of the State 
with which I am familiar. The largest amount of labor is expended 
to produce the smallest return. Indian corn costs more labor to pro- 
duce it, in proportion to the number of animals it will feed, than 
anything else. Certainly in all'the upper parts of the State it requires 
more labor to feed horses or other cattle on corn than any food grown. 

When in Burnsville, Yancey county, some years since, I was struck 
with the richness of a clover lot. The owner told me that for two 
years past he had fed his horses entirely on clover, either green or 
cured. He assured me that his wagon horses were thus kept in as 
good condition as they were when formerly fed on corn and oats. I 
have seen it stated that one pound of good clover hay was worth more 
than any grain for a horse, or in fact superior to any'known substance 
except oil cake. This gentleman said that he salted his green clover 
well and put it up before it was quite dry. He estimated one acre of 
his clover as worth for horses as much as nine acres of corn in Yancey, 
calculating the average product of the county at twenty-five bushels 
to the acre, which he thought above the real yield of the county. He 
also said that two acres of clover did not require more labor than one 
in corn, and that he believed that one man could feed in Yancey as 
many horses by his labor in producing clover as eighteen men could 
with corn. 

This seems a large difference, but a farmer in Transylvania to whom 
I repeated the statement, made a calculation which was fifteen to one. 
If either of these statements approximates the truth, the difierence is 
enormous. I think it clear that no one who examines the subject will 
doubt but that it costs far more labor to feed live stock on corn than 
any other kind of produce. 

Some years since when I was stopping at a house in Haywood 
county, I had some conversation with the proprietor. He told me 
that he had under cultivation in corn thirty-five acres, and said that 
he did not expect to obtain more than three hundred bushels. I 
observed that the greater portion of his land, though naturally fertile, 
was hilly and had evidently been very imperfectly cultivated. After 
dinner, we took a walk to look at a native grape vine. I found it near 
his stable, situated in a piece of bottom on the creek, of about eight 
acres. Some corn was looking well on the part near the stable, but 
four-fifths of the ground seemed chiefly covered by weeds. He said 
that the land was very rich, a large part of it inclined to be wet, and 
that having so much land to tend he had not been able to work it 
enough to keep the weeds under, and that he had been obliged to give 
up the greater part of it. I said to him, "Suppose you were to cut a 
ditch through the centre of it, and dry it, and then throw your surplus 



(87) 

manure from the stable on such parts as would derive the most benefit 
from its application, have you any doubt that this piece would yield 
you fort}' bushels to the acre?" He answered that he had no doubt of 
it. Then I added. " You would get more corn on this lot than you 
look for on your entire farm, and with perhaps not more than one- 
fourth of the labor, for as this land lies level and is free from stumps, 
you could cultivate it with great ease. The rest of your land you might 
let stand in grass with small grain." Ever}' acre of his land would 
produce fine crops of clover, orchard grass or timothy. 

In Asheville, Mr. Winslow Smith assured me that on one acre of 
land set in orchard grass, with a little clover intermixed, he had 
obtained of cured hay, at a single cutting, eight thousand five hundred 
and thirty-five pounds. The best clover I have ever seen was grown 
on some of the lots about Asheville. What our people in the upper 
part of the State on the undulating lands ought to do, is to plant corn 
patches instead of corn fields. They might thus obtain enough of 
that grain for bread and to fatten hogs, and depend mainly on other 
kinds of produce to sustain their stock. In this manner they could 
economise labor and also improve their farms from year to year. 

Even if there be some exaggeration in the calculations I have 
referred to, no one can doubt that the difference is many to one in 
favor of feeding stock on grass rather than corn. All animals not at 
work could be kept in good condition without grain, and even if when 
at hard work, something more was required, very little grain need be 
added to the hay. 

Before discussing remedies for this vicious or unwise mode of agri- 
culture, let us consider briefly a kindred subject: In former times, 
travelers would see at a road-side inn, the words "Entertainment for 
man and beast." We have often read articles suggesting the best 
modes of providing food for domestic animals, but the welfare of man 
seldom is deemed worthy of consideration. A highly educated physi- 
cian of large experience has said that dyspepsia was the national dis- 
ease of the United States. When I was in i'aris in 1859, Mr. Mason, 
our Minister at that court, told me that a physician of as much skill 
and of as large experience as any in Paris, said " that he had never 
known a case of dyspepsia to originate in that city." Why such a 
difierence against the United States ? We have as good a climate as 
that of France, and a much greater abundance of wholesome food. 

It has been said that the frying-pan is the great enemy to our 
people. There can be no doubt but that it has slain its thousands; 
but bad bread is the slayer of tens of thousands. While traveling: in 
Europe for eight months, I saw nothing but cold bread, nor did I, 
while there, see or hear anything that tended to induce me to believe 
that anybody in Europe had ever eaten a piece of hot bread. I inva- 
riably, however found, the bread good, and the people I saw appeared 
healthy and robust. Some, as the English anci Germans, were espe- 
cially so. 

With respect to the United States, the condition of things may be 
more strikingly and pointedly presented by references to individual 
cases. Many years since, I stopped at the house of an acquaintance, 



iS8) 

and on seeing him, I said: "You are not looking as well as usual." 
"No," he replied, "I have the dyspepsia powerfully bad." When 
dinner was ready, there was an abundant supply of meats and well- 
baked corn bread. There was also, however, something called biscuit, 
which was in fact rather warm dough, with much grease in it. I saw 
that my host ate this freely with his meats. I remarked that I did 
not wonder that he had dyspepsia, for that I could not live a month in 
that way. I suggested that if he would eat well-baked corn bread, or 
better still, light bread, he would not suffer as he was doing. He 
answered vehemently, "That he would rather die than eat light 
bread." I replied, " This is a free country, and you have a right to die 
in this mode if you choose, and I have no doubt but that you will soon, 
die." I then referred to cases in which I had known people to die 
from such practices. My cool mode of discussing the Cjuestion evi- 
dently made an impression on his wife. Next summer on meeting 
him, I said, "You are looking much better." "Yes," he replied, 
bursting into a hearty laugh, "I followed your advice, and took to 
eating light bread, and 1 am as well as I ever was in my life." 

Two or three years after this occurrence, I went to the house of 
another friend, and on meeting him, remarked that he was thin and 
appeared to be in bad health. "Yes," he answered, " I have been suf- 
fered very much from dyspepsia for nearly a year." In a few^ moments 
his wife appeared and on bis introducing me, she extended her hand 
pleasantly and said: "Is this Tom Clingman, is this the member of 
Congress?" "The same," I answered. "Well," she said, "I have 
often wished you were dead, because my husband used to lose so much 
sleep for fear you would not be elected." When dinner was prepared 
I observed that my friend ate with his meat the same kind of biscuit 
as those above described. "Why," said I, "you need not be disheart- 
ened about your health, your constitution is better than mine. I could 
not live many months on those biscuit. If you will' eat well done light 
bread, or even corn bread, you can get well." "So I have been told," 
was the answer, "but I believe I had rather die at once than to do it." 
Not wishing to lose such a friend I talked very fully on the subject 
with him, and when, a year later, I met him, he was in good health, 
as he believed, solely because he had given weight to my suggestion. 

I am inclined to think that within ten years as many persons have 
died prematurely in this State from bad cookery as were slain in the 
war. Dyspepsia is robbed of much of the credit of its operations. A 
certain individual, more remarkable for the length of his horns and 
tail than for his friendship for humanity, is said always to catch the 
hindmost. His agents act on this principle. Diseases are cowardly 
things and avoid attacking robust or vigorous constitutions, but when 
they find a poor devil enfeebled by dyspepsia, acting on the principle 
that when a man is down then is the time to gouge him, they pouncb 
upon the disabled creature and soon finish him. It thus happens, 
that cholera, consumption, or their co-laborers, carry off the credit that 
is due to indigestion, just as Falstaff appropriated the glory of killing 
Harry Percy. 



(S9) 

The question may be asked, why should the people of the United 
States, and especially in the South, in this respect, differ from the other 
civilized nations of the earth, and even those of former ages? The 
Scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ Vjroke bread, but much of what is 
called bread in our day is little less difficult to break than the molasses 
candy made and pulled by young people. A reason occurs to me why 
this practice prevails with us, which I have never heard suggested. 
One who reads the book of Sir Samuel Baker and other African ex- 
plorers, will learn that the negroes are as fond of fat and grease as are 
the Esquimaux Indians. They also eat and are capable of digesting 
raw vegetables, and have caj^acities in these respects much superior 
to those of the Caucasian. They have chiefly been the cooks of our 
country, and every cook, unless otherwise instructed, will prepare food 
to suit his own palate. Early in life I used to hear negroes say that 
the}' did not consider lean ham as meat., and they greatly preferred 
the fat sides of the bacon. Their system of cookery seems to have 
prevailed to so great an extent, that the white race, with its different 
physical constitution, is now suffering seriousl}'. 

As this practice results from ignorance entirely, why should it not 
be changed? It is idle !o say that the tastes of our people are essen- 
tially different from those of the kindred nations of Europe. That 
children prefer hot bread half baked is due to early teaching. No 
child likes the taste of tobacco, but i)y long practice they may be ren- 
dered fond of it. As children are ready to put anything into their 
stomachs. Providence kindly has given them the digestive powers of 
the ostrich, but after their minds have had time to expand and acquire 
knowledge, he leaves them to take care of themselves in this respect. 
If a mother were convinced that by giving her children hot, greasy 
bread, she at the same time would render their constitutions feeble 
and cause them to die early, would she persist in such a practice? 

How, then, are these evils to be corrected? As they are due partly 
to laziness, but chiefly to ignorance, the minds of the people must be 
enlightened. It is not sufficient that an article should occasionally 
appear in a newspaper, or an essay be read to a small a.ssemblage of 
people. No clergyman thinks he has done his duty, when he has 
delivered one sermon in a county. Earnest and continued efforts are 
necessary to enlighten the public mind. Some time since I told the 
members of the Legislature that if they would send two suitable men 
over the State to combat laziness and ignorance in farming and 
cookery, they might confer more real benefit on the State than all their 
legislation for the past ten years has done. But the men sent out must 
be popular speakers; such persons as are usually selected to canvass 
for the Governorship or for Congress. Let these men announce that 
the}' will, on Tuesday, of each court, show the people how to pay their 
taxes easily, and live comfortably. When the day comes, if the Judge 
will not yield one of them the court house for two hours, he will have 
a box placed under a tree to stand on, and he will address the crowd 
earnestly, like a man who wants an office very much. After informing 
them that Almighty God created Adam because He saw that there 
was no man to till the ground, he will discuss farming and cookery. 
12 



(90) 

Of the five hundred present, a dozen or two may be sufficiently 
impressed to make a trial. One will put peas into the ground, another 
sow a lot in clover, while a third will put his manure on a piece of 
ground near his stable to see if he can make an hundred bushels of 
corn to the acre. Some of their neighbors, after observing the result^ 
will follow their example. As politicians have their sub- electors, so 
these men should have local orators to aid them, and distribute docu- 
ments. Every fourth year the whole country is agitated by speakers 
and flooded with pamphlets to carry a Presidential election. If one- 
half the effort which was made in this State in 1872, to elect Greeley 
or Grant, could be made to enlighten the people on these subjects, the 
face of the country would be greatly changed for the better. 

Besides working earnestly and intelligently, our people must prac- 
tice economy. When I see a lady, who once was accustomed to wear 
silk, with a calico dress on, and know that this change was caused by 
losses in the war, that lady not only looks a little handsomer to me, 
but I like her much better. If the grangers wish to diminish the 
profits of the niiddle men, they should buy as little as possible from 
them. If our citizens would, for a few years, labor as industriously 
and live as economically as they did during the last two years of the 
war, our State would soon become one of the most prosperous in the 
Union. 

I have, my dear sir, perhaps extended these observations too far, but 
possibly some of the suggestions made, may set men to thinking on 
these topics. 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE NORTH CAROLINA STATE 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, OCTOBER 21, 1858. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

When, some twelve months, ago, there was a similar assemblage at 
this place, we were entertained with an address abounding in knowl- 
edge of agricultural subjects, comprehensive and thorough in its 
details, and in all respects interesting and useful to the planter and 
farmer. Such in character have been many of the addresses hereto- 
fore delivered on these occasions by the President of the Association 
and others. I regret that it will not be in my power to present to you 
a similar offering to-day. 

My past course of life and the pursuits with which I have been 
occupied, have been of such a character that most of you are, perhaps, 
my superiors in these branches of knowledge. The fact that the Exec- 



191 ) 

utive Committee of the Association should have selected me for such 
an office, well knowing as they did, doubtless, my deficiencies in this 
respect, would seem to imply that in their judgment, there were sub- 
jects within the reach of any man of education sufficiently related to 
practical agriculture to be interesting on an occasion like this. Having 
no especial reason for declining the invitation with which I was 
honored, and feeling a deep interest in the movements and success of 
the Association, I had no alternative but to accept, and must therefore 
bespeak your kindest indulgence while I attempt the performance of 
a duty wholly new to me. 

At the first view, agriculture strikes the mind as being the most 
independent and certain of progress of all occupations. Fertility, or 
the capacity for production, is a permanent enduring quality of the 
earth. The course of the seasons is regular and constant, within the 
necessarj'- limits, so that they bring, in proper order, sunshine and 
rain and the required changes of temperature. Even if, from any 
cause, particular spots of the earth's surface should be deprived of 
their productive powers, nature supplies fertilizing agents in great 
abundance. The wants of man which impel him to cultivate the 
earth, are fixed in his very nature; while the knowledge necessary to 
enable him to obtain a subsistence by husbandry is so small as to 
seem almost instinctive. Such discoveries as lead to improved modes 
of culture from time to time are easily transmitted to succeeding gen- 
erations, and without any very great mental exertions the stock of 
knowledge in this branch of industry is gradually increased. It would 
seem, therefore, that where agriculture once obtained a position it 
ought to extend itself, until, by successive advances, it attained the 
highest state of perfection. As, for example, it has already acquired a 
firm foothold in the United States, is there any reason to doubt but 
that it will expand and improve, until it has take entire possession of 
the North American continent, and everywhere exhibit itself in its 
highest condition? 

There are many facts in history which seem to sustain the affirm- 
ative of this question. It has been observed that agricultural States 
were those which manifested the greatest and most enduring vitality. 
India and China are pointed to as examples, and Sparta and Rome 
have been contrasted with such States as Phoenicia and Athens, and 
Carthage and Venice. It has been truly said that nations which were 
mainly dependent on commerce and manufactures were often ruined 
by a single unsuccessful campaign, while those chiefly engaged in 
agriculture could stand repeated reverses, and arise from each shock 
with renewed vigor, like the fabled earth-born giant from the touch of 
his mother. 

But numerous as are the circumstances that lend plausibility to this 
view, and pleasing as it would be for us to adopt such a hypothesis, a 
wider induction, and a more careful survey of the facts, will not allow 
us to rest with absolute certainty on such a conclusion. Thousands of 
years ago, immense nations existed in southwestern Asia. Dim as is 
the light of early history, it is yet sufficient to satisfy us that the 
country on either side of the great river Euphrates, and extending 



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quite to the Mediterranean, once teemed with dense masses of human 
beings. So imperfect were the means of transportation then known, 
that we can have no doubt but that they obtained their subsistence 
mainly from the soil on wdiich they lived. But the traveler who now 
passes over these regions finds comparatively but a sparse population, 
and the ruins of mighty cities, with immense mounds and buried 
columns, and sculptures of strange design and execution. Covered 
walls and cisterns, and dilapidated aqueducts, afford evidence of former 
industry on a vast scale. The mind instinctively asks what has 
wrought this wonderful change, and converted fertile fields and popu- 
lous cities into deserts? It cannot have been caused by any great 
geological convulsion or movement of the earth's surface. The form 
of the continents is now what it then was, and the seas and rivers still 
occupy their former places. The revolutions of the heavenly bodies 
continue in their long-known accustomed orbits and periods; nor can 
the finger of science point to anything in nature that has affected the 
course of the seasons, or materially modified the amount of heat and 
cold, and sunshine and rain, that visited those regions in the times of 
Nebuchadnezzar or Cyrus, or even of King Solomon. 

As inanimate nature and the course of physical events furnish no 
adequate cause for these changes, the reasons must be found in those 
political and social conditions which influence the actions of men. It 
may be said that invasions and conquests, or desolating wars, have 
destroyed the industry of these regions. It is undoubtedly true that 
feeble States are often plundered by strong ones to a ruinous extent; 
but, why, for example, did not the successors of Alexander the Great 
protect their subjects for their own advantage? Why did not the 
mighty monarchies which have since held these regions afford such 
security to them as to encourage industry, and keep up their former 
high condition of agricultural wealth? 

To obtain answers to these questions we must look to examples 
nearer to our own times, and to cases in which the facts are more gen- 
erally within the range of our observation. While the great Roman 
Republic held the choicest parts of the then known world, Italy itself 
was blooming like a garden, and filled with a dense and prosperous 
population. After the lapse of a few centuries it was found to be in a 
state of decay, a large proportion of its inhabitants had disappeared, 
and wild beasts roamed over what had once been among its best cul- 
tivated districts. Certain anti-slavery writers in Europe, seconded by 
some in this country, have contended that this remarkable change was 
to be attributed to the existence of slavery in that Empire. They 
strangely overlook the fact that this institution existed in all the great 
States of antiquity, so that such writers as Aristotle regarded it as a 
necessary element in every stable political and social system. For 
centuries during the best days of the Roman Republic the number of 
slaves were computed at three times that of the freemen, while the 
manumissions under the later Emperors, and after the times of Con- 
stantine, the liberation of all such slaves as might become Christians 
greatly diminished their numbers. If the question, therefore, should 
be narrowed down to this issue, he M'ould seem to have the advantage 



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who should altribute the decay of the Roman Empire to the emanci- 
pation of its slaves. 

A far more potent cause can be found for this remarkable change. 
The Provinces of the Republic were governed by Pro-consuls, Pra3tors, 
and other officers, who were seldom held accountable for their conduct 
towards those subjected to their control. It was the object of the gov- 
ernor to amass as much wealth as possible, and esteemed a great merit 
to return with such riches as might enable him to expend at Rome 
large sums for the amusement and support of the populace. This 
was the high road to favor and political preferment. The exactions 
from the distant provinces became more and more oppressive and grind- 
ing, until their wealth was exhausted. After their ruin was complete, 
Italy itself was resorted to, and the ingenuity of the Emperors was exer- 
cised in inventing schemes of taxation and modes of extortion. As the 
system became more and more oppressive, industry was discouraged 
and idleness rewarded. Who would labor when the product of his 
exertions was to be seized and given to the indolent and lazy ? The 
people abandoned the fields, and flocked to the cities to receive the 
b,rgesses and live on the bounties of the government. The population 
of Rome continued enormously large on account of the expenditures 
made there, while the rural districts were wasted and deserted. The 
condition of the Empire resembled that of a dying man, when the 
diminished vital energies cease to send the blood to the extremities, 
and it returns to, and is collected about, the heart. 

In our day we have a similar example presented by the Ottoman 
Empire, that "sick man" whose effects hold out such strong tempta- 
tions to the avidity of the greedy and ambitious. Its provinces, natu- 
rally so fertile, and once so prosperous, have been so long plundered 
by the various functionaries that have immediate control of them, 
that they are in a wasted and dying condition, wliile Constantinople 
is the point of attraction and expenditure. 

The immense British corporation which has so long controlled 
India, and its population of one hundred and seventy millions, is 
draining that country of its wealth, with a skill and efficiency, and a 
completeness which throws entirely into the shade, the clumsy 
methods of plunder practiced hitherto by barbarians. The rebellion 
still prevailing there, seems to be a struggle, it may be only a death- 
struggle, to shake off the gigantic vampyre, which will othervv'ise 
draw the last drops of blood from the heart of its victim. 

The great principle which I would deduce from all these examples 
is, that while feeble States may be ruined by powerful neighbors, who 
are hostile, great Empires have always been destroyed by their own 
governments. A small State, if safe from external violence, can 
watch over, and restrain within due bounds, its own rulers, but in 
large ones the central power is so great, and its territories so extensive 
and remote, that there cannot usually be sufficient understanding and 
concert of action among the sufferers, to enable them to make an 
effective opposition. In fact, where resistence begins in any section, 
the other portions of the Empire can generally be used for its suppres- 
sion, before any extended organization can be effected. It thus has 



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usually happened, that the oppression of the government has contin- 
ued and increased until it has weakened and destroyed, in a great 
measure, the country subject to its domination. 

Having some years ago attempted to present this view, I hope now 
to be excused for repeating it, because I think it can be shown th^jt 
the great danger to us in the future is one of this kind. To a pros- 
perous system of agriculture, then, it may be assumed that there 
ghould exist a territory of sufficient fertility, with a congenial climate, 
an intelligent and energetic race af men, and such a political and social 
system as will afford security to industry, and stimulate rather than 
depress its activity. 

North Carolina has fifty thousand square miles of territory — just 
about the area of England. But while England, exclusive of Scotland 
and Wales, has a population of seventeen millions, North Carolina has 
barely one million. If this difference is not to continue, can we ever 
equal, or even approximate the population of England? When at 
Washington, persons comparatively strangers to our State, often have 
said to me, " So you are from the piney region of North Carolina." They 
sometimes seemed surprised when I told them that the section from 
which I came was more remote from that district covered with pines 
than Washington City itself, and even less like it in its external 
features. The fact that the principal lines of travel through our State 
have been along that comparatively narrow belt of level pine forest, 
has made most persons from abroad suppose that the whole State is of 
that character. 

It was in the month of July, 1584, that the first Europeans who 
ever touched the shores of any one of the old thirteen States, 
approached the coast of North Carolina, under the command of Ami- 
das and Barlovve. In the report to Sir Walter Raleigh, drawn up by 
the latter, it is said that two days before they came in sight of the land; 
" We smelled so sweet and so strong a smell, as if we had been in the 
midst of some delicate garden, abounding with all kinds of odoriferous 
flowers." On reaching the landit was found "so full of grapes, as the very 
beating and surge of the sea overflowed them, of which we found such 
plenty, as well there as in all places else, both on the sand and on the 
green soil, on the hills as in the plains, as well on every little shrub, 
as also climbing the tops of high cedars, that I think in all the world the 
like abundance is not to be found; and myself having seen those parts 
of Europe that most abound, find such difference as were incredible to 
be written." Inside of the long narrow tract of islands, along which 
they coasted for two hundred miles, they found what "appeared 
another great sea," between them and the main land. Everywhere 
they were struck with surprise, as they beheld the variety, the magni- 
tude and beauty of the forest trees, which not only surpassed those of 
"Bohemia, Muscovia or Hercynia," but "bettering the cedars of the 
Azores, of the Indies, or Lybanus." 

Two years later, after a residence of twelve months on the main 
land, with a party of colonists, Ralph Lane declared "the main to be 
the goodliest soil under the cope of Heaven;" "the goodliest and most 
pleasing territory in the world," "and the climate so wholesome, that 



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we had not one sick since we touched the land here." He ajffirms 
that if it "had but horses and kine in some reasonable proportion, I 
dare assure myself, being inhabited with English, no realm in Christ- 
endom were comparable to it. For this already, we find, that what 
commodities soever Spain, France, or Italy, or the East parts, do yield 
to us, &c., these parts do abound with the growth of them all, and 
sundry other rich commodities, that no parts of the world, be they 
West or East Indies, have, here we find the greatest abundance of." 

When we contemplate North Carolina at the present day, we recog- 
nize the features here described. There is on the coast the same long 
line of low sandy islands, probably formed by the de])0sits of sedi- 
ment, where the fluvial waters from the interior are checked in their 
course by the opposing current of the Gulf stream. With the excep- 
tion of the fine harbor of Beaufort, there are the same difficult inlets 
which terrified these early voyagers, and on their maps were marked 
with figures of sinking ships. Inside of the range there are the same 
broad and shallow seas, most abundantly supplied with fish, and those 
other inhabitants of the deep, which are alike calculated to minister 
to the necessities and luxuries of mankind. On the "main" there 
are lands liot inferior in fertility to the famous Deltas of the Nile, or 
the Mississippi. Cultivation for one hundred successive years, in the 
most exhausting of the grain crops, has not diminished their pro- 
ductiveness. Though it has cost something to render these swamp 
lands suitable for cultivation, yet no agricultural investment ever 
made in America, perhaps, yields a better return ; and this fact affords 
another illustration of the truth, that Providence has decreed that the 
best things in life shall cost labor to attain them. And yet, up to this 
time but a small proportion, many persons think not one-fiftieth 
part, of the swamp lands in the eastern portion of the State have been 
put in cultivation. When, after the manner of Holland, all this 
region shall have been reclaimed, the entire present population of the 
State might be removed to it, without being able to cultivate the half 
of it. Almost every portion of it, too, is penetrated by navigable 
streams. Passing inward a hundred miles, or more from the coast, 
we reach that belt of pine land, which was formerly regarded as onl}'' 
valuable for its tiniber, and naval stores generally, but which latter 
experiments show, may, without difficulty, be rendered highly pro- 
ductive. By the application of marl or lime, it has been ascertained 
that most of this region can be made to yield abundant crops both 
of cotton and the cereals. Westward of this, there stretches for two 
or three hundred miles a moderately elevated, undulating country, 
presenting almost every variety of landscape, soil and production. 
At its extreme borders, there rises up a mountainous region, with 
bolder scenery and a more bracing climate. Few of our citizens 
realize the extent of this district, or are aware of the fact that it is 
three hundred miles in length, and has probably more than thirty 
peaks that surpass in altitude Mount Washington, long regarded as 
the most elevated point in the Atlantic States. Though this region 
does not present the glacier fields and eternal snows of the Alps, yet 
their want is amply atoned for, by a vegetation rich as the tropics 



( 96 j 

themselves can boast of. Rock}^ masses, of immense height and mag- 
nitude, and long ridges and frightful precipices are to be found; but 
the prevailing character of this section is one of such fertility that the 
forest trees attain their most magnificent proportions on the sides, and 
even about the tops of the highest mountains. There, too, are to be 
seen those strange, treeless tracts, which the aboriginal inhabitants 
supposed to be the foot-pr.nts of tbe "Evil One," as he stepped from 
mountain to mountain. Their smooth, undulating surfaces, covered 
with waving grasses, suggest far different associations to the present 
beholders. The landscape is variegated, too, by tracts of thirty and 
even forty miles in extent, covered with dense forests of the balsam fir 
trees, appearing in the distance dark as "the plumage of the raven's 
wing," and green carpets of elastic moss, and countless vernal flowers, 
among which the numerous species of the azalia, the kalmia, and 
the rhododendron, especially, contend in the variety, delicacy and 
brilliancy of their hues. From the sides of the mountains flow cold 
and limpid streams along broad and beautiful valleys. Though such 
a region as this can never weary the eye, its chief merit is, that almost 
every part of it is fitted to be occupied by, and to minister to the 
wants of man. 

Our State, from the seashore to its western limit, is probably as well 
watered as any equal extent of territory on the face of the globe; and, 
in all the middle and upper portions, the supply of water power is 
inexhaustible. In fact, there are single rivers, such as the Catawba 
and French Broad^ or " Racing river" of the Cherokees, which are 
sufficient to move the machinery of a State. Throughout our entire 
territory there are no barren wastes, and rarely ^ square mile to be 
found which cannot maintain its proportionate share of population. 
In all its parts, too, the variety, magnitude, and beauty of its forest 
trees, full}' sustain the encomiums of those early explorers. While the 
seaboard counties have those peculiar to that region — like the cypress, 
juniper, live-oak, and the gigantic pines of the swamps, fit to become 
the "masts of great Admirals" — and the mountains such varieties as 
are suited to a hardier climate, the State, as a whole, seems to contain 
representatives of almost all the trees of the North American forest, 
in Iheir fullest and grandest development, and to afford in the greatest 
profusion all manner of timber and beautiful woods for the uses of 
the artificer. 

When we look beneath the surface of the earth, there are abundant 
objects of interest. North Carolina has the distinction of being the 
first of all the governments of the world that ordered a geological 
surve}'^ of its territory; and she has, in my opinion, a greater variety 
of mineral substances than any single State of the Union. Not only 
does she present the diamond, platinum, gold, silver, and man}' other 
substances, interesting to the man of science for their rarity, or 
attractive to the lovers of ornament for their beauty, but she possesses 
in great abundance those minerals which add most to the wealth and 
permanent prosperity of a State. Though her coal measures are not 
perhaps as extensive as those of some of the other States, yet they are 



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sufficiently so to be inexliaustible; while the coals are of the very best 
quality for fuel, for the making of gas, and for the manufacture of iron. 

With respect to the ores of iron, I think she may fairly claim to 
be the first of all the States, because she has not only all such ores 
as they possess, in the greatest abundance, but she is the only one 
known to contain the rare and valuable "black band ore," and that 
in quantities vastly surpassing the deposits in Scotland itself. When, 
therefore, we look to the coal measures on Deep river, and find all 
these ores in the greatest abundance, overlying or between the coal 
seams themselve.s, and consider all the advantages of this locality, we 
can hardly doubt the correctness of the opinion expressed by the most 
experienced miners and manufacturers of iron, that, when proper 
outlets are opened, by the completion of the works of improvement 
now in progress, iron can be there made and transported to Wales, 
and sold at as cheap rate as that for which the Welsh manufticturers 
now afford the article. 

Extensive beds of valuable marl are ascertained to exist over almost 
the entire eastern portion of the State, and afford the means of making 
fertile most parts of that section. Recent examinations have brought 
to light to so great an extent, lime, copper ores, and other valuable 
minerals, as to satisfy every one that North Carolina is eminently for- 
tunate in her geological formations. 

The agricultural productions of the State are not less varied than 
its surface and soils. I know of no article grown in New England or 
New York that cannot be obtained with less labor and at lower rates 
in the mountain regions of North Carolina. Whatever the middle and 
western States of the Union yield, can be produced in abundance, not 
only in the central parts, but, in fact, all over our State. While tobacco 
may be profitably grown in almost every portion of it, some of the 
northern counties produce varieties equal, and probably superior, to 
what old Virginia herself, or any other part of the world, grows. 
Cotton of fine qualities is produced in the lower counties, in as great 
quantity to the acre and with as high profits as in the southwestern 
States. The progress this culture has of late made with us, when we 
consider the large area suitable to it, renders it probable that, at no 
distant day, North Carolina will take rank among the first cotton 
States of the Union. The rice of the Cape Fear is esteemed equal to 
the best in the world, and its culture may be largely extended in that 
region. The lowland counties of the east and northeast, as producers 
of breadstuff's, are destined to be to the adjacent regions what Egypt 
was in the time of the Pharaohs. 

The grape is indigenous in every part of the State, from Currituck 
to Cherokee: and among the hundreds of native varieties that are from 
time to time brought to light, after the neglect and waste of centuries, 
there are doubtless many which will equal, possibly surpass, the 
delicious Scuppernong of the Albemarle region, and the famous 
Catawba of Buncombe. With such indications, and our favorable soils 
and climate, why may we not in time approximate the vintages of 
France and Germany? 
13 



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Mr. Webster once remarked to me in conversation, that he did not 
believe that we should ever be able to obtain good wine from the 
Atlantic slope of the American continent. The reason given by him 
was this: the prevailing winds of the temperate region being from the 
west, as in the United States they came from the land, a much higher 
degree of heat was felt in the summer than in Elurope, where they blew 
from the Atlantic Ocean. Hence he thought the extreme heat of the 
summer here would bring about too soon an acetous fermentation, 
unfavorable to the production of good wines. If this view should 
present an insurmountable difficulty with respect to wines made from 
foreign grapes, that ripen in the heat of our summers, it nevertheless 
would not exist in the case of the natives, which do not usually come 
to maturity until the greatest heats of the summer are past, namely, in 
the months of September and October. In fact, in a district of a few 
miles in extent on the Tryon mountain, where neither dew nor frost 
is ever known, and which is remarkable for the variety and excellence 
of its native grapes, they are often found in fine condition in the open 
air, as late as December. 

In the wine districts of France, there are embraced in all about eight 
thousand square miles, a considerable portion of which consists of 
rocky steeps, and terraces, unfitted for the production of the cereals, 
and yet'the yield in wine is of the value of more than fifty millions of 
dollars annually, while the product of brandy is from ten to twelve 
millions. 

It thus appears that the whole yield from tliese eight thousand miles 
of territory is equal to about one-half of the average value of tlie cot- 
ton crop of the United States for the last five years. There is doubt- 
less in North Carolina a much greater amount of land than this, 
suitable to the growing of gra})es, and may we not hope, one of these 
days, to become a great wine producing community? 

With the single exception of the sugar from the cane, I know of no 
agricultural product of the Union wliicli is not suited to our State. I 
do not merely mean to say that they may be produced, but that they 
all find in our limits their appropriate soil and climate, and can be 
successfully cultivated to an extent greatly surpassing the wants of 
our own people. All the domestic animals existing in the United 
States thrive within our borders. Though the sheep may be advan- 
tageously reared in almost every part of the State, he finds his best 
climate and most attractive food in the mountainous region, while the 
blood horse can be most successfully raised in the sandy districts of 
the lower countr^^ 

The climate of North Carolina as a whole is eminently favorable. I 
know that different opinions prevail in many quarters, and so much 
is said in these days of northern energy and southern indolence, tliat 
you will doubtless pardon a few remarks tending to dispel a singular 
popular delusion. I maintain, then, that during nine-tenths of the 
existence of man on the globe, as historically known, the destinies of 
the world have been controlled by nations occupying territories having 
as warm climates as our own. According to the settled opinion of the 
learned, when man was first created, he was placed by Providence in 



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such a climate, and it would be singular indeed, if, when he was com- 
manded to multiply and replenisli the earth, he should have been 
placed by his Greater in an unfavorable location. Egypt, where man 
seems first to have attained a high state of civilization, and India, had 
tropical climates. The four great Empires of antiquit}^ were, in 
their centres, subjected- to ranges of temperature as high as ours. 
Babylon and Persepolis were nearer the equator than the most south- 
ern point of North Carolina, while Nineveh was below its northern 
limit, and the hearts of the Assyrian and Persian Empires were sub- 
jected to a warmer climate than ours. And Greece and Rome, too. 
were lands of the olive, the vine and the fig tree, and possessed tem- 
peratures as high as our own. What people ever exhibited more spirit, 
energy, and enterprise than the Greeks in their Persian wars and 
Asiatic invasions ? Where has the world seen such an example of 
long-sustained strength and energy as was manifested by the Romans, 
when they held for so many centuries the best portions of the known 
world from Scotland down to the great African desert? After the decay 
and fall of their Empire, there began under the tropic of Cancer a 
movement headed by Mahomet, which swept over the earth with the 
rapidity of a^ame of fire, subjecting the principal parts of it to its con- 
trol. A high state of civilization was kept up for centuries at Bagdad 
and Cordova, the capitals of the principal brancties of the Saracenic 
dominions. After their decline and the overthrow of the Greek 
Empire of Constantinople, the period of Spanish ascendency began. 
It thus appears that it is only during the last two or three centuries 
that the so-called northern nations have had control of the world. 
The extraordinary popular error which so generally prevails on this 
subject is due, doubtless, mainly to the fact that to the minds of the 
majority of men the present is everything, and the pasl however long 
it may have been, goes for nothing. It in part, too, may be accounted 
for by the well-known circumstance, that the old Roman Empire in 
the period of its decay was overrun by bands of Barbarians from the 
north. But at that time the strength of the Romans was gone, having 
been destroyed by their vices, and the despotisms to which they had 
been subjected. In fact, they had long ceased to be a military people, 
or to bear arms, and had been accustomed to hire these Barbarians to 
defend them. That they should have fallen a prey to them is no more 
wonderful than that a decrepit giant, after a century of vice and dissipa- 
tion, should have been overpowered by a stripling. There can be no 
doubt but that any one of the half a dozen such armies as the Roman 
Republic could keep in the field at the same time, would have been 
able to beat any horde of barbarians that ever crossed the frozen 
Danube. 

I would not disparage or undervalue the intellect, talent, energy and 
courage exhibited by the northern nations in our day. But Homer 
still stands the monarch of poetry. All attemps to equalize others with 
him but serve to show their lamentable inferiority. Demosthenes and 
Cicero are still the models to which the sudent in oratory is pointed. 
Who has exhibited more capacity for metaphysical science than Aris- 
totle, or greater genius for mechanical philosophy than Archimedes? 



(100) 

Wliose works of art surpass those of Phidias and Michael Angelo? 
Who as moralists have been superior to Socrates and St. Paul? What 
navigators were more enterprising and daring than Christopher 
Columbus and Vasco de Gama? Who as warriors, statesmen and 
possessors of universal genius and talent rank above Julius Csesar and 
Napoleon Bonaparte? The catalogue might be indefinitely extended, 
b}' references to both Europe and the United States, but until these 
names are overshadowed, it cannot be truthfully said that a northern 
clime is necessary to develop the highest degree of human courage, 
talent, energy and intellect. 

We have, then, all the necessary physical conditions in our territory 
•^-minerals, soils, woods, waters and climate — to make us a great agricul- 
tural State. In addition to these advantages, there must be an intelli- 
gent, energetic and moral population. It is only with our da}', that 
the characteristics and qualities of the various races of men have received 
any large share of attention. Many ages ago the different speQies of 
animals and plants and even the heavenly bodies, were the objects of 
study, but it is only of late that the peculiarities of the several races 
of men have become the subjects of investigation, and that this branch 
of science, most important to man, has made remarkable progress. 

The dominant race in our State belongs entirely to the great Cau- 
casian family, that has in all ages controlled the destinies of the world. 
Wherever it has existed, neither zone, nor clime, nor external circum- 
stances have materially modified its physical and mental features. It 
has dominated alike in Northern and in Southern Europe, and in 
Central and Southern Asia, nor have the torrid heats of Africa pre- 
vented Carthagenian, and Roman, and Saracenic ascendency. In 
America, too, whenever its stock has been kept pure, its superiority 
has been equally striking from Canada to Cape Horn. But while it 
everywhere shows itself to be superior to any of the other races, it is 
nevertheless aff'ected ' to some extent by certain causes. While the 
mixture of those nearly related by blood is extremely injurious, and 
on the other hand the union of races widely different, is destruction i« 
a few generations to the hybrid progeny resulting from it, it has been 
ascertained that a combination of varieties of the same race is advan- 
tageous, and that in such cases there are exhibited the highest degrees 
of courage, energy and intellect. The ancestors of the present popu- 
lation of« North Carolina were mainly from England, and the English 
people are themselves a combination of the original Celts, Romans, 
Saxons, Danes, and Normans. In our own State they have received 
a large admixture of the modern Germans, Irish, Scotch, French, and 
other European nations. Such a combination gives the best assurance 
of a high order of intellectural and moral qualities One-third of our 
population consists of an inferior race held in subjection by the higher 
one. The negroes are by their phy.-^ical constitutions eminently fitted 
for a hot climate, and for situations unfavorable to the health of white 
men. They are, therefore, suited to the swamp lands of the lower 
counties, where they can labor without injury from the solar heat and 
malaria. They exist, too, among us in a proportion nearly large enough 
to occupy in time the region where they are most needed, though 



( 101 ) 

perhaps in rather less numbers at present than the State, as a whole, 
may require. The negro, in all ages, and in all countries, where he 
has remained for any length of time, has been a slave, and his natural 
qualities seem so eminetly fitted for that condition, as strongly impel 
us to the belief that he was intended by Providence to occupy that 
station. It is, too, gratifying for us to know that as he exists in the 
Southern States of the Union, he is in all respects superior to what he 
has been elsewhere. Apprehension was formerly felt lest, by reason of 
the considerable numbers existing in this country, there might in time 
be a complete mixture of the two races, or dangerous collisions between 
them. Intelligent minds at this time have no such fear. As to the 
first ground of uneasiness, independently of the repugnance felt by the 
white man to such an union, Providence has by a law of his own, 
higher than an}' human enactment, guarded against it. For purposes 
of his own he has determined that the different species of living things 
shall continue to exist as separated by him, in spite of efforts to add 
to the number of the various species. This principle applies to the 
human race as well as to the inferior animals. Hence, when mixtures 
occur, they, like other hybrids, can exist only for a few generations. 
Plad it been otherwise, instead of the different races we now find in 
most parts of the earth, there would have been only one uniform mix- 
ture of all, like an alloy of metals fused together. Nor is there reason 
to apprehend resistance, or rebellion, among the negroes on any large 
scale. They are instinctively so sensible of the superiority of the 
white man, and so docile in their disposition, that they remain passive 
in their present condition. In fact, so wide is the chasm between them 
and us, that they do not aspire to equality. We have, therefore, a 
great advantage over those nations that have held, as slaves, their own 
equals. In such cases there have been dangerous insurrections and 
most cruel and bloody civil wars. 

The effect, too, of this condition of things, is favorable to the ruling 
race. Every white man is sensible of his advantages, and takes a 
pride in his position. He looks upon himself as the peer of all living 
men. It was well said by Burke, that in countries where slavery was 
unknown, liberty vvas looked upon as an important political right ; 
but that where it did exist, each freeman regarded his liberty as a 
high personal privilege which he was ready to defend with the last 
drop of his blood, and that slaveholders always maintained their lib- 
erties with a higher and haughtier spirit than others. With us there 
is the double stimulant: first, that of freedom as contrasted with 
slavery: secondly, the superiority of the white man to the negro. Our 
society, seems, therefore, to rest on the most favorable basis. 

North Carolina is often called an honest State. I doubt if those 
who thus speak of our integrity and honesty, realize the extent of 
the compliment they pay us. I fear, fellow-citizens, that we do not 
ourselves, full}' appreciate it. As one of the great distinguishing 
qualities of the Creator of the Universe, not less than His omnipotent 
power, is [)erfect truth, integrity ; as He has made man's eternal hap- 
piness depend solely on his moral worth, and as He has so ordered 
that in the private relations of life, integrity and truth are the basis 



(102) 

of respect, esteem and confidence between man and man, in fact the 
very foundation of the social system, it might be well supposed that 
public virtue would be of the utmost consequence to a State. Accord- 
ingly we find that in all ages the strength and prosperity of nations 
have kept pace with their public and private morals. Even small 
States, where a high moral tone prevailed, have had strength enough 
to resist the most powerful invaders. The philosophic historian^ 
Polybius, while a captive at Rome, at the period of the greatest pros- 
perity of that mighty republic, when comparing its institutions and 
morals with those of his degenerate countrymen, declared that the 
word of a Roman was worth more than the bond of ten Greeks with 
twenty witnesses. In the course of a single century these Romans 
lost their stern integrity, and public corruption and private vice pre- 
vailed, so that a republican form of government was no longer practi- 
cable. Even the iron despotism which succeeded, though it delayed^ 
could not prevent the decay and destruction of the empire. A great 
French monarch regretted that he could not afford the luxury of an 
egg for his breakfast, because each one of his subordinates, through 
whom the money to be paid for it would have to pass, would embezzle 
so much of it as to render the sum expended larger than his treasury 
could bear. Santa Anna is understood to have declared, that the 
reason why he could not maintain any stable system of government 
in Mexico, was because the officials he was obliged to employ, appro- 
priated to their own uses all the funds intended to be expended for 
the public service. The late Czar of Russia is reported to have com- 
plained that the interest of the empire suffered by reason of the pecu- 
lations of his officers. Even the untiring industry, comprehensive 
intellect and eagle eye of the great Napoleon, could not prevent similar 
abuses. I maintain, then, fellow-citizens, that when our cotemporaries 
speak of us as pre eminently honest, they assign to us that very qual- 
ity which, of all others, is most important to the strength and pros- 
perity of a State, 

It is sometimes said, however, that we are behind the present age. 
If we have retained somewhat more than others the institutions and 
manners of our forefathers, I trust we have them kept with the stern 
integrity which distinguished the revolutionary age. Lord Chatham, 
when contrasting the iron barons of the olden time with the silken 
ones of his day, declared that he "would not give three words of their 
barbarous Latin for all the Classics." The earlier stages in a nation's 
existence are usually characterized by simple virtues and a stern 
abhorrence of vice and crime. As they become more refined they are 
usually relaxed and enervated, and are more tolerant to wrong-doers. 
Already in certain portions of the Union such is the sympathy felt for 
criminals, that the great effort is to make them as comfortable and 
happy as possible after the conviction. I hope that with us, sympa- 
thies will always be given to the innocent v/ho may have suffered, 
and indignation felt towards the criminal. I trust that neither capi- 
tal nor corporal punishment will ever be more sparingly used in our 
State than they are now. The relaxations that have already taken 
})lace have not, in my judgment, been advantageous to the public. 



( 103 ) 

Let our State always be as uncomfortable as possible to the vicious 
and the criminal. It will then continue, as it has heretofore been, a 
region wherein there is as small a portion of crime to its population 
as any on earth. As evidence of the confidence reposed in the integ- 
rity of North Carolina abroad, we may refer with satisfaction to the 
high prices at which her bonds are sold even in periods of the greatest 
depression in financial matters. 

That our people are not as generally educated as some others, has 
been the subject of comment, but at present North Carolina is expen- 
ding for the purposes of education within her limits, more, I think, in 
proportion to her population, than any one of the Southern States, and 
than most of the Northern ones. 

It cannot be fairly argued, either, that we are behind our neighbors 
in native intellect. Those who have represented us in the national 
councils have usually, at least, maintained an average position with 
the representatives of other parts of the Union. Some w^ho were born 
and educated among us have, while citizens of other States, attained 
the highest positions known to the Republic. It is, nevertheless, 
undoubtedly true that our sons have not, while residing among us, 
been the recipients of a fair share of public honors. This is, I 
think, to be attributed to two causes. During my time in public 
life those whom we have sent to represent us at Washington have been 
in a political sense, reliable men. In other words, no matter to what 
party association they might belong, it was known that they would 
stand firmly by the "^principles they professed. Representatives from 
•some of thethe States by threatening to assail their own parties, find 
favor, and have honorable appointments bestowed on their immediate 
constituents, because politicians are often meanly selfish enough to 
quiet opposition and buy support by bestowal of the offices in their 
gift. It has thus sometimes happened that our State has been pun- 
ished for the fidelity of its representatives. I am far from thinking, 
however, that it is a misfortune to our citizens generally, that they 
are not holders of federal offices. I happened to mention last winter 
to a prominent statesman, that during the whole of General Pierce's 
administration, and of Mr. Buchanan's up to that time, there had not 
been a single application for an oflice under the Federal Government 
from any citizen of ray district. He at once declared that the fact was 
so honorable to the district, that it ought to be universally known. 
And I do hold that nothing can be more honorable to our people than 
the fact that they should be willing to rely on their own honest 
industry, at home, instead of hanging about Washington for a liveli- 
hood. Still our State has not, I am sorry to say, abroad, at all times, 
the consideration and weight she would have if her sons were oftener 
the recipients of the higher honors of the Republic. 

In the second place, it has been sometimes said that we have not 
always been so ready as some of our neighbors, to promote and sus- 
tain our ablest men. This, if true, I have thought was, in a great 
measure, due to a condition of things which it is in our power to 
remove. Owing to the form of the territory of our State, there has been 
heretofore little community of feeling between the diff'erent parts of it. 



(104) 

The eastern counties have, from their position been isolated from the 
rest of the State, the northern ones connected with Virginia, and tiiose 
on the southern border with South Carolina, while the extreme west 
has stood, as it were, alone. The State has, therefore, been very much 
broken up into sectional divisions. In filling the prominent political 
positions to which we were entitled, combinations of some of these sec- 
tional parties have been formed for temporary purposes. It may have 
happened that on account of these sectional rivalries, strong men 
have sometimes been set aside. Envy is said to love a shining mark, 
and she acts after the fashion of Tarquin, when he cut the tallest 
poppies. Our people have been accustomed to lament the fact, that 
we have no large city in which the opinion of the State could be con- 
centrated and a proper tone given to its feelings. But large cities are 
attended with so many evils, that by some they are regarded as sores 
in the body politic. They are less favorable, perhaps, to the increase 
of wealth and population than the rural districts, and are attended 
with far more pauperism, vice and crime. The general extension of 
railroads and telegraphs seems about to give to the country irany of 
the advantages of the cily without its drawbacks. With their aid one 
may now pass through a State in but little more time than he would 
formerly have traversed a large city. By these means our North Car- 
olina citizens can have the benefits which arise from a rapid inter- 
change of views with each other, without the evils that attend the 
crowding of population into large cities. We can thus have the 
strength of concentration without its weakness, and knowledge and 
refinement without vice. Already the progress made in our works 
seems in this respect to have produced a favorable change. But when 
they shall have been completed, when one may to-day lave in the 
breakers of the Atlantic, and to-morrow stand among the clouds, on the 
mountain tops of the distant west, wdien the whole State is thus 
brought together, you will then have a North Carolina opinion so 
concentrated and energetic, that it will become efficient, and give us 
that consideration abroad to which we shall be entitled. 

I have already intimated that there is a danger which threatens us 
in the distance. Such is now the strength of the United States, that 
they have nothing to fear from foreign violence. The evil which 
menaces us is wholly from within. I do not now merely allude to an 
organization which has sprung up lately in the Northern States, and 
which threatens our section. Its governing principle is hostility to 
the South. No matter what might be the opinions of a man on any 
political, social, or moral question, if he was only known to be in- 
tensely hostile to us, if he was anxious that all the powers of the Fed- 
eral government should be exercised against us, and for our destruc- 
tion, such a man was regarded as a worthy member of the organi- 
zation. To suppose that the South would willingly submit to be gov- 
erned by such a party, would be an implication that she wanted the 
common instincts of humanity. No man is to be expected to submit 
himself, if he can by any possibility avoid it, to the control of one 
whose only principle is enmity to him. Waving for the present, how- 
ever, all thought of this danger, there is in the future, ground for 



(105) 

apprehending evil to all the members of the confederacy. We have 
seen that great nations have, in the end, suffered most from the exac- 
tions of their governments. Were this a consolidated republic it 
could not hope to escai)e, for a long period, the fate of those which 
have preceded it. In the organization of our system, however, it has 
been most wisely arranged, that the powers of the central government 
should be limited and well defined. Two main reasons led to its for- 
mation: The first object was to enable it to manage the foreign rela- 
tions of the States, and hence it was invested with the power to make 
war against and treaties witli foreign nations, and to regulate com- 
merce with them. A second prominent object was to prevent col- 
lisions and misunderstandings between the States themselves, and it 
was authorized to regulate commerce between them, coin money, etc. 
Most of the leading powers belonging to it fall within these classes. 
It was, however, invested with certain other attributes, not of the first 
magnitude, but which it could conveniently and advantageously 
exercise. In order, too, that it might have the means of sustaining 
itself, and perform the functions assigned to it, it was invested with 
full power to raise revenue by taxation, and with no limit, except 
what its legitimate wants might fairly require. All other powers were 
retained by the States. 

Notwithstanding the care and foresight manifested by its founders, 
it has, nevertheless, greatly increased its strength since its formation. 
This is due, not so much to its having assumed new powers, (for the 
attempts made in that direction have been on the whole pretty suc- 
eessfully resisted,) as to the practices which have grown up under it. 
Combinations have been formed by certain classes to make use of its 
powers for their own advantage. I will refer to a few examples to 
make it manifest that it is treading, to some extent, in the foot-prints 
of its predecessors in the world. Bounties are given to those engaged 
in certain kinds of fislieries, and these by no means the most difficult 
and dangerous. It cannot be shown that those thus employed are 
more meritorious than are the classes taxed for their benefit. The 
original excuse given for this measure, that it was necessary to create a 
navy, no longer exists, because we have a commercial marine equal to 
that of the first nation in the world; and it is a singular fact that other 
branches even of the fisheries have increased much faster than those 
favored ones. In the second place, our navigation laws are unjust to 
all, except those engaged in commerce. If the agriculturist wishes to 
transport his grain, cotton, or tobacco from one part of the Union to 
another, why should he not send it in the ship which will carry it 
cheapest? Or if one of our merchants should wish to have goods, 
purchased by him, brought from New York to Wilmington, and a 
foreign ship is willing to bring them for one-half the price that 
American vessels charge, why should not he be permitted to employ it? 
If one of our citizens wishes to buy a ship, why not allow him to pur- 
chase where he can do it the cheapest? These restrictions are all 
intended for the benefit of northeastern ship-owners and builders, and 
oppress the agriculturist. 
14 



(106) 

The most injurious of all measures of the government, however, to 
the planters and farmers, is that arising from the manner in which 
the tariff' taxes have been imposed. Any just system of taxation ought 
to be made as equal as possible, whereas, in fact, this has generally 
been made the reverse. Certain classes wishing to escape all the burdens 
of supporting the government, and to derive profit from the system, 
have, by their activity and industry, succeeded in rendering it in the 
highest degree unequal. It thus happens that when the American 
people are made to pay more that sixty millions to the federal govern- 
ment annually, they likewise pay a still larger sum to the manufac- 
turers. The excuse for this is, that American labor must be protected. 
But are not the agriculturalists, who toil in the sun, laborers f If so, 
why should they be taxed for the benefit of the manufacturers? 

Again, a powerful combination has been formed to carry out a 
system of internal improvement by the federal government. When, 
at the formation of the Constitution, power was given to regulate com- 
merce, this was well understood to mean only the right to pass laws 
for the regulation of trading vessels, &c., and it was never dreamed 
that under it the government was to have the authority to make 
harbors where nature had not provided them, open rivers, and build 
roads. As managed, in fact, it has been a mere combination to plunder 
the treasury for the private advantage of the parties. Appropriations, 
too, are made to build expensive custom-houses in the interior of the 
countr}^ a thousand miles from the frontier, where the imports are in 
fact made. As the goods have to be carried by the custom-houses on 
the frontier, it is a mere mockery to pretend that any just reason exists 
for such expenditures. They are known to be made solely to gratify 
the pride of certain cities, to give jobs to contractors, and employment 
to workmen. For a like reason government post offices are required 
to be built. After most of those who have fought through the wars 
are dead, strong efforts are made to get pensions for them. It is 
notorious, that the main pressure on Congress to enlarge the system 
enormously comes from the speculators who are employed as pension 
agents, and who make large profits by their operations. In some 
years, the printing of comparatively worthless books exceeds the 
expenses of the entire government in its earlier days. Every pretence, 
too, is sought to create new offices and enlarge salaries. There are 
already powerful combinations of those who expect to make a living 
out of the government. A large portion of this mischief, undoubtedly, 
arises from the action of those who represent the manufacturing- 
interest, and who labor to cause the government to waste as much 
money as possible, so as to afford an excuse to raise or keep up the 
tariff taxes. I refer to these things to make it appear that our govern- 
ment is traveling the path of those which have gone before it. But it 
is sometimes said that the diffusion of education, newspapers and 
universal suffrage will protect us. If any one thinks so, let him look 
to the city of New York. There are in abundance newspapers, intel- 
ligence and universal suffrage, and yet that community, in spite of its 
efforts, is oppressed by an enormous system of taxation, the proceeds 
of which are mainly wasted. If a small locality like this cannot pro- 



(107) 

tect itself, what might we expect in this extended Union, if the powers 
of its government were all consolidated at Washington. 

Seeing the progress already made under our system, I should despair 
of its being arrested, hut for one consideration. There is a limit to the 
sum that can be raised by the tariff taxes, as it depends on the amount 
of the imports, and I doubt if the people would bear a heavy system of 
direct taxation. It is this thought that gives the most hope. Let things 
go on as they may, however, it is our duty to use all the means in our 
power to arrest the evil by restraining the action of the central govern- 
ment within proper limits. From the past conduct of North Carolina 
and the present feeling of her people, I look upon her as among the most 
reliable of the States in this cause. 

There are, too, fellow-citizens, incidents in our history which may well 
be brought to mind on an occasion like this. The first explorations and 
settlement of our territory were made under the auspices of one with 
whom any comnniuity might feel proud to be associated. When you 
consider his great abilities, both as a military and a naval commander, 
his talent an«d sagacity as a statesman, his varied learning and knowl- 
edge, so much in advance of his times, his accomplishments as a courtier, 
his lofty spirit fully imbued with the tone of that departing chivalry 
which could lend even to error itself a halo of glory, his high courage 
and daring, and generous and noble traits in private life, Sir Walter 
Raleigh was, by all odds, the first man of his day in England, bright as 
that day was. After the settlement of the colony of North Carolina, its 
inhabitants were remarkable for their love of independence and their 
capacity to govern themselves. As our character as a frank and candid, 
quiet and well ordered and industrious community is so fully established, 
we can, without any feelings of uneasiness or sensitiveness, recur to such 
statements as these. In the year 1731 the Colonial Governor, Burring- 
ton, in an official dispath to his home government says: "The people 
of North Carolina are neither to be cajoled nor outwitted. Whenever a 
governor attempts to effect anything by this means, he will lose his labor 
and show his ignorance." 

"The inhabitants of North Carolina are not industrious, but subtle 
and crafty; always behaved insolently to their governors; some they 
have imprisoned, others they have drove out of the country, and at other 
times set up a governor of their own choice, supported by men and arms." 

When the dividing line was run between Virginia and North Carolina, 
one of the commissioners ap])ointed by the former State, William Byrd, 
in his "History af the Dividing Line," says: " The borderers laid it to 
heart if their land was taken in Virginia; they chose much rather to 
belong to Carolina, where they pay no tribute to God or to Ceesar." 

As he may have felt a pique against the borderers, and jealousy towards 
a State preferred to his own, his words ought probably to be accepted with 
grains of allowance. We will therefore take only half the statement 
to be true — the latter licdf — for those who are readiest to resist the 
demand of an usurping despot, are the most likely to render the homage 
due to the Creator and Governor of the Universe. We should naturally 
expect such a peo])le to be among the first and boldest to resist those 
aggressions of Great Britian which led to the Revolution. Accordingly, 
in the year 1765, on the passage of the Stamp Act, Colonel John Ashe, 



( 108 ) 

Speaker of the House of CommoDS of Korth Carolina, informed Gov- 
ernor Tr}'on that the law would be resisted to e'verj extent. On the 
arrival of the British sloop-of-war Diligence in the Cape Fear, he and 
Colonel Waddell, at the head of a body of the citizens of the counties 
of New Hanover and Brunswick, marched down in a body, frightened 
the captain of the ship so that he did not attempt to land the stamp 
paper, seized her boat and carried it, with flags flying, to Wilmington, 
and the whole town was ilhiminatecl that night. On the next da}'^ they 
marched to the Governor's house and demanded that Governor Tryon 
should desist from all attempts to execnte the Stamp Act, and obliged 
him to deliver up Plouston, the stamp-master for North Carolina. 
Having seized upon him, they carried him to the public market-house 
and compelled him to take an oath never to attempt to execute his oflice 
as stamp-master. 

It was nearly ten years after this act that the Boston tea party 
assembled, when a number of citizens, disguised as Indians, went on 
board a ship and threw overboard the tea imported in her. This latter 
act was done in the night, by men in disguise, and was directed against 
a defenceless ship. But the North Carolina movement, ten years earlier 
in point of time, occurred in open day, and was made against the Gov- 
ernor himself, ensconced in his palace, and by men who scorned all 
disguise. While both deeds were meritorious on account of their daring, 
and also. the motives of the actors, that at Boston partook of the stealthy 
manner of the cautious fox, while the North Carolina act resembled the 
lofty bearing of the lordly lion, whose defiant roar sends challenge loud 
to all that oppose his way. And yet the one occurrence has been lauded 
unsparingly, while the other is scarcely known out of the limits of our 
State. Historians, whose main object has been to elevate other States, 
have ignored it, because of its brilliancy. It has been suggested, how- 
ever, by way of excuse for this, that the tea movement led immediately 
to a collision of arms. But will any man pretend that a blow which 
merely irritates an adversary and causes him to make an attack, is more 
meritorious than one so decided as to overawe him and compel hira to 
retreat ? 

The same spirit continued to animate our people, and led to the up- 
rising of the Regulators to resist the oppressive taxation and exactions 
of the colonial government. It was on the 16th day of May, 1771, that 
the battle of the Alamance was fought, in which more than three thous- 
and men were engaged. Here occurred the first collision of arms 
between Great Britain and her rebellio'is colonies, and here was shed the 
first blood of the American Revolution. Though superiority of arms 
and discipline enabled Governor Tryon to win the victory, yet such was 
the terror inspired by the movement, that he required the people, in all 
the middle and upper parts of the State, to be drawn out in battalions, and 
to take an oath of allegiance to the British Government. In addition 
to this, the prominent men who were most suspected, were notified from 
time to time to appear at each Court, and renew the oath to sustain the 
Government. As the contest waxed warmer and warmer between the 
colonies and the mother country, the spirit of our people continued to 
rise. And on the 20th of May, 1775, the citizens of Mecklenburg, more 
than a year in advance of the general declaration, proclaimed Indepeu- 



(109) 

dence, and, at a subsequent meeting, perfected their system of Govern- 
ment. The conduct of lier sons throughout tlie whole struggle vindicated 
the opinion expressed by Lord Cornwallis and Colonel Tarleton, that 
Mecklenburg was the most rebellious county in America. Such a county 
was a fitting birth-place for Andrew Jackson. 

As the first lilood of the Revolutionary contest had been shed in our 
State, so in it the first victory was won, in the well-fought battle of 
Moore's Creek, on the 2Tth of February, 1776. Nor were the exertions 
of our citizens confined to their own territory. General Francis Nash 
and Colonel Edward Buncombe gave up their lives on the soil of Penn- 
sylvania, and at the battle of Eutaw" the North Carolina militia main- 
tained the tight, in the open field, against a greatly superior force of 
British regulars, so long, and so obstinately refused to retire, when 
ordered by their ofiicers, that the Commader-in-Chief declared that their 
conduct would have done to honor Prussian veterans. And when the 
gloomy cloud of British domination was moving steadily on from the 
northeast, like the dark shadow of an eclijise, it paused before it reached 
our western border. The tide of our enemies' success recoiled from the 
base of those " unknown mountains," and became refluent when Fer- 
guson fell. Soon after, in the bloody battle of Guilford, the power of 
Cornwallis, the ablest and most dangerous of our enemies, was broken, 
and he retired, with drooping spirits, to the sea-side, to become a captive. 

That North Carolina declined, for two nearly two years after its forma- 
tion, to become a member of our present Union, is in no respect to her 
discredit. Having profited by her own experience, she was slow to part 
with the right of absolute self-government, and finally, only adopted 
tlie Federal Constitution after important amendments had been made. 
And should it, from any cause, fail to afibrd her that protection to which 
she is entitled, the spirit which animated her early colonists, which 
resisted the Stamp Act and other British aggressions, and rose still 
higher at Mecklenburg and King's Mountain, will again be ready to 
vindicate the great principles of civil liberty. That she may be spared 
the necessity of new exertions to that end, ought to be the wish of all 
her sous. The whole human race is largely interested in the result of 
our present system ; and should it be successful, tliere will be presented 
such an empire of confederated sovereignties as has never yet existed on 
tlie face of the slobe. 



SPEECH 

DELIVERED AT THE CHARLOTTE CENTENNIAL, MAY 20, 1875. 



By Hon. T. L, CLINGMAN. 



After General Cox, lion. Thos. L. Clingman was called for and spoke 
as follows : 

Gentlemen : — Yon have been trnthfully told by the eloqnent speakers 
who have preceded me to-day, that North Carolina was the first of the 
colonies to appeal to arms against Great Britain, and the first to declare 
independence. There is notlnno- left forme to add on this point. Even 
if I had been tlie first speaker, I donbt if I shonld ha^ye deemed it neces- 
sary to argue the last of tliese questions, for I have never seen or heard 
of but three North Carolinians who professed to have doubts on the 
subject, and for the sake of contrast I am quite willing that they should 
go in a set by themselves. 

During the discussions of the day, one consideration presented itself 
to my mind wliich ought to be gratifying to us all. When the war of 
the Revolution began, the free white population of the colonies was very 
nearly two millions and a half, and yet General Washington's army 
sometimes was allowed to dwindle down to two or three thousand 
men. Why was this? The people of these colonies had been acccus- 
tomed only to live under a monarchy, and practically knew no other 
government. There were intelligent, high-toned, brave men who led in 
the movement, and to whose efforts its success was chiefly due, but the 
masses were, in the main, so slow, careless, indifferent, or divided, that 
Lord Cornwallis was surprised when he found a community like that of 
Mecklenburg all arrayed against him. 

A century has passed by, and what has been the result ? Has the 
enjoyment of constitutional government and free institutions caused us 
to degenerate? Why, in our late civil war, our whole population, what- 
ever might be the side they espoused, seemed ready to embark in the 
contest. 

North Carolina alone, with a white population of little more than six 
hundred thousand, or only one-fourth of that of all the colonies, if you 
compute the length of the service of her men, placed in the field more 
troops than all the old thirteen States did, nor have I a doubt but that she 
had twice as many men killed in battle as all those that were slain on 
the American side during the entire revolutionary struggle. Why one 
of our North Carolina brigades would })robably have arrested the march 
of Cornwallis across the State. I have little doubt but that the brigade 
I commanded so long, many surviving members of which I have seen 
here assembled to-day, would, if present at Guilford Court House, by 



(Ill) 

one of its cliargeSj have relieved Lord Cornwallis of the necessity of 
marching all the way up to Yorktown to find some one to capture him. 

The difference between onr people of revolntionary times and those of 
the present day, is to be attributed partly to onr experience of the advan- 
tages of free institutions, and also to that general diffusion of intelligence 
and public spirit, which the great material progress around us has pro- 
duced by means of such instrumentalities as railroads, telegraphs and 
a widely extended press. 

Our civil war, too, has strikingly presented the contrast between the 
United States and European nations. In the year 1859 I was in Italy 
during a great war waged by France and Italy against Austria, and 
two battles, which occurred in the same month, decided the contest. A 
few years later, the power of the Austrian empire, with seven or eight 
hundred thousand men, was broken in a single battle at Sadowa. In 
the more recent war between France and Germany, the French Emperor, 
at Sedan, surrendered in the open field one hundred and thirty thousand 
men. Just think of one hundred and thirty thousand men surrendered 
in the open field. Why, I doubt if General Grant, even, ever had as 
large a number of men as that present in a single engagement under his 
eye, while General Lee never had half that number present at one time. 
How striking tlie difference between Euro]:»e and the United States. 
Men who fight for a king fight feebly, with little heart, and are easily 
subdued, but in a republic each citizen feels that he is fighting for him- 
self and for his own country. It thus happens that the entire strength 
of the country is called into action. Nor does any other condition so 
greatly develop material progress. Wlien in Loudon, I happened, during 
a conversation with Lord Macaulay, one of the best informed men in 
Europe, to say that the United States had as many miles of railroad as 
all the rest of the world, and he seemed surprised to learn the fact. 

Our late war develo]>ed all that was most striking in ancient or modern 
warfare. When at sunrise on the field of Waterloo, Napoleon saw that 
Wellington's army, instead of having retreated, as he had apprehended 
it would do, was in position before him, he exclaimed, '* We have them, 
these English !" Marshal Soult, wdio had been fighting them for years 
in Portugal and Spain, said, " Sire, the infantry of England in battle is 
the devil." Napoleon, at the close of the day, found this to be true, and 
at St. Helena, referring to their steady resistance under attack, said, 
"There is no moving them." But nothing that England's soldiers ever 
did, surpassed tlie unshaken courage of our North Carolina Confederates 
under the most formidable assaults. On more than one occasion, when 
attacked again- and again, at the same time in front and flank, by more 
than ten times its numbers, one of its brigades remained unbroken. 

But the most striking feature of the late war was the Confederate 
charge. The student will remember that at Marathon the Athenians 
for the first time made a wild dash against the mass of their enemies. 
Julius Caesar said that Pompey, at Pharsalia, made a great mistake in 
not allowing his men to go into the battle with a running charge. This 
mode of fighting had, how^ever, gone into disuse in the world for centu- 
ries, and was revived only in our day by the Confederate soldiers. When 
after the seven days' fight at Richmond, the Orleans Princes returned to 
Europe, to account for McClellan's defeat they referred to this feature, 



(112) 

and said that people in Europe could have no idea of the eifect of a 
charge extending over a length of three miles. Our friend, General 
D. H. Hill, if present, could tell us all about this. Often as I witnessed 
this charge, I never saw it fail to break and carry down the force against 
which it was directed. 

If we wish our country to be the greatest in war and in peace, the 
iirst in material progress and the grandest in public spirit and patriotism, 
we must preserve a free system of constitutional government. I say to 
gentlemen of the North here present, as well as those of the South, that 
this is our highest duty to our country and to humanity. In such a 
cause, we here ]:)resent are fully prepared to co-operate with them. 

On this point I speak as a Confederate who did not abandon the con- 
test till its close. That they may understand what sort of a Confederate 
I was, I may, perhaps, repeat without impropriety a conversation with 
General Joseph E. Johnston, which not long since he well remembered. 
Just before the surrender at Greensboro, I said to him, " General, much 
has been said about dying in the last ditch ; you have still left with you 
here fourteen thousand of as brave men as the sun ever shone upon ; let 
us stand here and fight the two armies of Grant and Sherman, and thus 
show to the world how far we can suiijass the Tliermopylse of the 
Greeks." He remained in silent thought for some moments, as if hesi- 
tating, and thus answei-ed, " General, if they were all like you, I would 
do it, but there are many young men here who have a future, and I 
ought not to sacrifice their lives." I then, and sometimes since, have 
felt, as doubtless many other Confederates have done, a regret that I had 
not fallen in the last battle. I say to gentlemen from the North, that 
since the day of that surrender, I have not met one North Carolinian 
who expressed a desire to renew the war against the United States. We 
have regarded the contest as finally settled, as after a Presidential elec- 
tion the party beaten acquiesce in the result and stand by the govern- 
ment of their country administered by one against whom they had voted. 

It never was pretended that men were disloyal to the country because 
they might have voted for Greely, or Seymour, or Scott, or Clay, unless 
they would come forward and declare that they had been wrong and 
were sorry for what they had done. While, as far as I know, our citizens 
are satisfied that they did I'ight in the late war; but having been beaten, 
they are willing now to join cordially with those to whom they were once 
opposed, in all honest and fair eftbrts to maintain sound constitutional 
government and the true principles of American liberty. 

As the hour is late, gentlemen, I conclude these remarks with an 
expression of my thanks to the citizens of Charlotte for the generous 
hospitality they have extended to those whose presence they have invited. 



ARTICLES RELATING TO THE MOUNTAIN 
REGION OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



[Having occasionally, for more than thirty years in the past, written articles 
in relation to the mountain region of North Carolina, owing to the intervals 
of time which had elapsed between the successive publications, and also 
because I had sometimes to reply to similar questions of different persons, 
there are repetitions in some instances, perhaps, of the statements. 

In making the selections which follow, however, I have sought only to 
present such publications as might convey the leading facts of interest, with 
as little repetition as possible.] 



To J. S. Skmne?; Esq. 

House of Representatives, February 3, 1544. 

Dear Sir: Your favor of the oOth ultimo was received a day or two 
since, and I now avail myself of the very first opportunity to answer 
it. I do so most cheerfully, because, in the first place, I am happy to 
have it in my power to "ratify in any manner one who has done so 
much as j'ourself to difiYise correct inforination on subjects most 
important to the agriculture of the country; and, secondly, because I 
feel a deep interest in the subject to which your inquiries are directed. 
You state that you have directed some attention to the sheep husban- 
dry of the United States, in the course of which it has occurred to you 
that the people of the mountain regions of North Carolina, 
and some of the other Southern States, have not availed themselves 
sufficiently of their natural advantages for the production of sheep. 
Being myself well acquainted with the western section of North Caro- 
lina, I may perhaps be able to give you most of the information you 
desire. As- you have directed several of your inquiries to the county 
of Yancey, (I presume from tiie fact, well kno^-n to you, that it con- 
tains the highest mountains in any of the United States,) I will, in the 
first place, turn my attention to that county. First, as to its elevation. 
Dr. Mitchell, of our University, ascertained that the bed of Tow river, 
the largest stream in the county, and at a ford near its centre, was 
about twenty-two hundred feet above the level of the ocean. Burnsville, 
the seat of the court-house, he found to be between 2,800 and 2,900 
feet above it. The general level of the count}' is, of course, much 
above this elevation. In fact, a number of the mountain summits rise 
above the height of six thousand feet. The climate is delightfully 
cool during the summer: there being very few places in i\\Q county 
where the thermometer rises above eighty degrees on the hottest day. 
An intelligent gentleman who passed a summer in the northern part 
of the county (rather the more elevated portion of it) informed me 
15 



(114) 

that the thermometer did not rise on the hottest days above seventy 
degrees. 

You ask, in the next phxce, if the surface of the ground is so much 
covered with rocks as to render it unfit for pasture? The reverse is the 
fact; no portion of the county that I have passed over is too rocky for 
cultivation, and in many sections of the county one may travel miles 
without seeing a single stone. It is only about the tops of the highest 
mountains that rock}' precipices are to be found. A large portion of 
the surface of the county is a sort of elevated table-land, imdulating^ but 
seldom too broken for cultivation. Even as one ascends the higher 
mountains, he will find occasionally on their sides fiats of level land 
containing several hundred acres in a body. The top of the Roan, 
the highest mountain in the county except the Black, is covered by a 
prairie for ten miles, which affords a rich pasture during the greater 
part of the year. The ascent to it is so gradual, that persons ride to 
the top on horseback from almost any direction. The same may be 
said of many of the other mountains. The soil of the county gene- 
rally is uncommonly fertile, producing with tolerable cultivation 
abundant crops. What seems extraordinary to a stranger is the fact 
that the soil becomes richer as he ascends the mountains. The sides 
of the Roan, the Black, the Bald, and others, at an elevation of 
even five or six thousand feet above the sea, are covered with 
a rich deep vegetable mould, so soft that a horse in dry 
weather often sinks to the fetlocks. The fact that the soil is fre- 
quently more fertile as one ascends, is, I presume, attributable to 
the circumstance that the higher portions are more commonly 
covered with clouds, and the vegetable matter being thus kept in a 
cool, moist state while decaying, is incorporated to a greater degree 
with the surface of the earth, just as it is usually found that the north 
side of a hill is richer than the portion most exposed to the action of the 
sun's rays. The sides of the mountains, the timber being generally 
large, with little undergrowth and brushwood, are peculiarly fitted for 
pasture grounds, and the vegetation is in many places as luxuriant as 
it is in the rich savanna of the low country. 

The soil of every part of the county is not only favorable, to the pro- 
duction of grain, but is peculiarly fitted for grasses. Timothy is sup- 
posed to make the largest yield, two tons of hay being easily produced 
on an acre, but herds-grass, or red-top, and clover, succeed equally 
well; blue-grass has not been much tried, but is said to do remarkably 
well. A friend showed me several spears, which he informed me were 
produced in the northern part of the county, and which, by measure- 
ment, were found to exceed seventy inches in length ; oats, rye, pota- 
toes, turnips, &c., are produced in the greatest abundance. 

With respect to the prices of land, I can assure you that large 
bodies of uncleared rich land, most of which might be cultivated, have 
been sold at prices varying from twenty-five cents to fifty cents per 
acre. Any' quantity of land favorable for sheep-walks might be pro- 
cured in any section of the county, at prices varying from one to ten 
dollars per acre. 



(115) 

llie few sheep that exist in the county thrive remarkably well, and 
are sometimes permitted to run at large during the winter without 
being fed, and without suffering. As the number kept by any indi- 
vidual is not large enough to justify the employment of a shepherd to 
take care of them, they are not unfrequently destroyed by vicious 
dogs, and more rarely by wolves, which have not yet been entirely 
exterminated. 

I have been somewhat prolix in my observations on this county, 
because some of your inquiries were directed particularly to it, and 
because most of what I have said about Yancey is true of the other 
counties west of the Blue Ridge. Haywood has about the same eleva- 
tion and climate of Yancey. The mountains are rather more steep, 
and the valleys somewhat broader; the soil generally not quite so 
deep, but very productive, especially in grasses. In some sections of 
the county, however, the soil is ecj^ual to the best I have seen. 

Buncombe and Henderson are rather less elevated; Asheville and 
Hendersonville, the county towns, being each about twenty-two hun- 
dred feet above the sea. The climate is much the same, but a very 
little warmer. The more broken portions of these counties resemble 
much the mountainous parts of Yancey and Haywood, but they con- 
tain much more level land. Indeed, the greater portion of Henderson 
is quite level. It contains much swamp land, which, when cleared, 
with very little if any drainage, produces very fine crops of herds- 
grass. Portions of Macon and Cherokee counties are quite as favor- 
able, both as to climate and soil, as those above described. I would 
advert particularly to the valleys of the Nantahalah, Fairfield, and 
Hamburg, in Macon, and of Cheoh, in Cherokee. In either of these 
places, for a comparatively trifling price, some ten or fifteen miles 
square could be procured, all of which would be rich, and the major 
part sufficiently level for cultivation, and especially fitted, as their 
natural meadows indicate, for the production of grass. 

In conclusion, I may sa}'- that, as far as my limited knowledge of 
such matters authorizes me to speak, I am satisfied that there is no 
region that is more favorable to the production of sheep than much 
of the country I have described. It is everywhere healthy and well 
V watered. I may add, too, that there is water power enough in the 
different counties composing my Congressional district, to move more 
machinery than human labor can ever place there; enough, certainly, 
to move all now existing in the Union. It is also a rich mineral 
region. The gold mines are worked now to a considerable extent. 
The best ores of iron are found in great abundance in many places; 
copper, lead,* and other valuable minerals exist. That must one day 
become the manufacturing region of the South. I doubt if capital 

* Since writing this letter I have discovered there the diamond, platina, blue 
corundum, in large masses, of brilliant colors, and the most splendent lustre, sap- 
phire, ruby, emerald, euclase, amethyst; also, in various localities, zircon, pyropian 
garnet, chromo ore; and manganese, and barytes in large veins; likewise plumbago 
- of the finest quality. ^^ This note was added five years later. 



( 116 ) 

could be used more advantageously in any part of the Union than in 
that section. 

For a number of years past the value of tlie live stock (as ascer- 
tained from books of the Turnpike Company) that is driven through 
Buncombe county is from two to three millions of dollars. Most of 
this stock comes from Kentucky and Ohio, and when it has reached 
Asheville, it has traveled half its journey to the most distant parts 
of the Southern market, viz: Charleston and Savannah. The citizens 
of my district, therefore, can get their live stock into the planting 
States south of us at one-half the expense which those of Kentucky 
and Ohio are obliged to incur. Not only sheep, but hogs, horses, 
mules, and horned cattle can be produced in many portions of my 
district, as cheaply as in those two States. 

Slavery is, as you say, a great hugbear, perhaps at a distance; but I 
doubt if any person from the North, who should reside a single year 
in that country, whatever might be his opinions in relation to the 
institution itself, would find the slightest injury or inconvenience 
result to him individually. It is true, however, that the number of 
slaves in those counties is very small in proportion to the whole popu- 
lation. 

I have thus, sir, hastily endeavored to comply with your request, 
because you state that you would like to have the information at once. 
Should you find my sketch of the region a very unsatisfactory and 
imperfect one, I hope you will do me the favor to remember that the 
desk of a member during a debate is not the most favorable position 
for writing an essay. 

With very great respect, yours, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

J. S. Skinner, Esq. 



To the Editor of the Highland Messenger. 
You published a few weeks since an extract from an article in ^Vi^- 
liman's Journal., contributea by Professor Shepard, in which he de- 
scribed a diamond sent him from this region a few months since. As 
that extract excited some interest in the minds of a number of my 
friends who are engaged in the mining business, I inclose you a letter 
from Professor Shepard, the publication of which I am sure would be 
acceptable to many of your readers. I may remark in explanation, 
that, within the last few years I have sent Professor Shepard some 
hundreds of specimens of minerals collected in this and some of the 
other western counties of the State. In some instances a doubt as to 
the character of a particular mineral, induced me to take this course, 
but more frequently it was done to gratify those of my acquaintances 
wdio wished to have their specimens examined by one in whose de- 
cision there would be absolute acquiescence. I knew, too, that I 
should b}^ these means be able favorably to make known to the public 
the existence in Western North Carolina, of such minerals as might 
be valuable in a commercial point of view, or interesting to the scien- 
tific world. The letter which I send you, was received in reply to an 



(117) 

inquiry directed to Professor Shepard, as to what was his opinion gen- 
erally in rehitioi) to the minerals of this region, and what he thought 
of the propriety of a more careful survey of it than has hitherto been 
made. The answer, thougli merely in reply to my inquiries, is of such 
a character that I feel quite sure that its publication will be alike 
creditable to the writer and beneficial to the public. Even should it 
fail to produce any such impression on the minds of our legislators as 
might induce them to direct a complete geological survej^ of the State, 
its publicity may in other respects prove beneficial. 

I have been pleased to observe that tlie letter of Professor Mitchell, 
in relation to some of the minerals of this region, which appeared in 
your paper a year or two since, directed the attention of a number of 
persons to that subject, and has been the means of bringing under my 
observation several interesting minerals. By going (whenever leisure 
has been afforded me) to exaniine such localities as from their sin- 
gular appearance or any peculiarity of external character, had aroused 
the attention of persons in the neighborhood, I have induced many 
to manifest an interest in such subjects, so that there is in this region 
a considerable increase in the number of individuals who will lay up 
and preserve for examination singular looking minerals. Others are 
deterred from so doing, lest the}^ should be laughed at by their neigh- 
bors as unsuccessful hunters of onines. Doubtless they deserve ridi- 
cule, who, so ignorant of mineralogy as not to be able to distinguish 
the most valuable metallic ores from the most common and worthless 
rocks, nevertheless s{)end their whole time in traveling about the 
country under the guidance of mineral rods or dreams, in search of 
mines. But almost every one ma}^ without serious loss of time and 
with trifling inconvenience to himself, preserve for future examination 
specimens of the dift'erent mineral substances he meets with in his 
rambles. He ought to remember that by so doing he may have it in 
his power to add to the knowledge, wealth and ^lappiness of his coun- 
trymen. Partially separated as this region of country is'by its present 
physical condition from the commercial world, it is of the first con- 
sequence to its inhabitants that all its resources should be developed. 
Opening valuable mines, besides diverting labor now unprofitably, 
because excessively, applied to agriculture, would attract capital from 
abroad and furnish a good home market to the farmer. 

Should the proposed railroad from Columbia to Greenville, South Car- 
olina, be completed, I am of opinion that the manganese and chrome 
ores in this and some of the adjoining counties would be profitably ex- 
ported. Though the veins of sulphate of baryta in the northern part 
of this county, contain pure white varieties suitable to form an adult- 
erant in the manufacture of the white lead of commerce, yet, for want 
of a navigable stream, it is not probable they will ever be turned to 
account in that way. They have, however, at some points, a metallic 
appearance at the surface, they lie at right angles to the general direc- 
tion of the veins of the countr}^, go down vertically, and being asso- 
ciated abundantly with several varieties of iron pyrites, oxides of iron, 
fluor spar and quartz, and containing traces of copper and lead, will 
doubtless at no very distant day, be explored to a greater or less extent. 



(118) 

There is not a single county west of the Blue Ridge, that does not eon- 
tain in abundance rich iron ores. In some instances these deposites are 
adjacent to excellent water power and limestone, and are surrounded by 
heavily timbered cheap lands. The sparry, carbonate of iron, or steel 
ore, of which a specimen, some years since, fell under the observation 
of Professor Mitchell, though he was not able to ascertain the locality 
from which it came, is abundant at a place rather inaccessible in the 
present condition of the country. It is not probable that in our day 
the beautiful statuary marble of Cherokee, both white and flesh- 
colored, will be turned to much account for want of the means of 
getting it into those markets where it is needed. Besides the minerals 
referred to in Professor Shepard's letter, some of the ores of copper 
exist in the western part of this State. I have the carbonate, (green 
malachite,) the black oxide, and some of the sulphurets. Whether, 
however, these, as well as the ores of lead and zinc, (both the carbo- 
nate and sulphuret exist here,) are in sufficient abundance to be 
valuable, cannot be ascertained without further examination than has 
yet been made. 

Maiiy persons are deterred from making any search, and are dis- 
couraged because valuable ores are not easily discovered on the sur- 
face of this country. This is not usually the case any where. Gold, 
it is true, because it always exists in the metallic state, and because it 
resists the; action of the elements better than any other substance, 
remains unchanged, while the gangue, or mineral containing it crum- 
bles to pieces and disappears, and hence it is easily found about the 
surface by the most careless observer. Such, however, is not generally 
the case with metallic ores. On the contrary, many of the best ores 
would, if exposed to the action of the elements, in progress of time be 
decomposed, or so changed from the appearances which they usually 
present when seen in cabinets, that none but a practiced eye would 
detect them at the surface. In the counties west of the Blue Ridge, 
there has been as yet no exploration to any depth beneath the surface 
of the ground, with perhaps the single exception of the old excava- 
tions in the county of Cherokee. According to the most commonly 
receivetl Indian tradition, they were excavated more than a century 
ago, by a company of Spaniards from Florida. They are said to have 
worked there for two or three summers, to have obtained a white 
metal, and prospered greatly in their mining operations, until the 
Cherokees finding that if it became generally known that there were 
valuable mines in their country, the cupidity of the white men would 
expel them from it, determined in solemn council to destroy the whole 
party, and that in obedience to that decree no one of the adventurous 
strangers was allowed to return to the country whence they came. 
Though this story accords very well with the Indian laws which con- 
condemned to death those who disclosed the existence of mines to 
white men, yet I do not regard it as entitled to much credit. At the 
only one of these localities which I have examined, besides some other 
favorable indications, there is on the surface of the ground in great 
abundance that red oxide of iron, which from its being found in Ger- 
many above the most abundant deposites of the ores of lead and sil- 



(119) 

ver, has been called by the Germans the Iron Hat. Also something 
resembling that iron ore rich in silver, which the Spaniards called pacos, 
is observable there. It seems more probable, therefore, that some of 
those companies of enterprising Spaniards, that a century or two since 
were traversing the continent in search of gold and silver mines, 
struck by these appearances, sunk the shafts in question and soon 
abandoned them as unproductive. But which of these is the more 
probable conjecture, cannot perhaps be determined, until some one 
shall be found adventurous enough to reopen those old shafts. I am, 
however, keeping your readers too long from the interesting letter of 
Professor Shepard. T. L. CLINGMAN. 

New Haven, Conn., Sept. 15, 1846. 
Hon. Mr. Clingman, 

Dear Sir : — To your inquiry of what I think of the mineral resour- 
ces of Western North Carolina, it gives me pleasure to sa}^ that no part 
of the United States has impressed me more favorably than the 
region referred to. It is proper, however, to state, that my acquaint- 
ance with it is not the result of personal observation, but has been 
formed from a correspondence of several years standing with yourself 
and Dr. Hardy, and from the inspection of numerous illustrative 
specimens supplied to me at different times by my colleague, Dr. S. A. 
Dickson, of Charleston. S. C, and by the students of a medical college 
of South Carolina, who have long been in the habit of bringing with> 
them to the college samples of the minerals of their respective neigh- 
borhoods. I may add to these sources of information, the mention of 
not unfrequent applications made to me by persons from North Caro- 
lina, who have had their attention called to mines and minerals, with 
a view to their profitable exploration. Nor shall I ever forget the 
pleasure I experienced a year or two since, on being waited upon in 
my laboratory by a farmer from Lincolnton, who had under his arm a 
small trunk of ore in lumps, which he observed that he had selected 
on account of their size, from the gold washings of his farm during 
the space of a single year. The trunk contained not far from twelve 
hundred dollars in value, and one of the specimens weighed two hun- 
dred and seventy-five dollars. 

I have recognized in the geological formation of the southwestern 
counties of North Carolina, the same character which distinguishes 
the gold and diamond region of the Minas Geraes of Brazil, and the 
gold and platina district, (where diamonds also exist,) of the Urals, in 
Siberia. It is this circumstance, beyond even the actual discoveries 
made with us, that satisfies my mind of the richness of the country in 
the precious metals and the diamond. The beautiful crystal of this 
gem which you sent me last spring, from a gold washing in Ruther- 
ford, however, establishes the perfect identity of our region with the 
far-famed auriferous and diamond countries of the south and the east. 

Neither can there remain any doubt concerning the existence of 
valuable deposits of manganese, lead, crome and iron in your imme- 
diate vicinity, to which I think we are authorized to add zinc, barytes 
and marble. I have also seen indications of several of the precious 



(]20) 

stones, besides the diamond, making it on the whole a country of the 
highest mineralogical promise. 

Enough has ah^eady been developed, as it appears to me, in the 
minerals of the region under consideration, to arouse the attention of 
prudent legislators to this fertile source of prosperity in a State. If a 
competent surveyor of the work were obtain.ed, under whose direction 
a zealous and well-instructed corps of young men (now easily to be 
obtained from those States in which such enterprises are just drawing 
to a close) could take the field, I have no doubt that numerous im- 
portant discoveries would immediately be made, and that the entire out- 
lay required for carrying forward the work, would in a very short time 
be many times over returned to the people from mineral wealth, which 
now lies unobserved in their very midst. But the highest advantages 
of such a survey would no doubt prove with you as it has done else- 
where, to be the sjArit of inqtdry uihich it would impart to the popula- 
tion generally, producing among their own ranks an efficient band of 
native mineralogists and geologists, whose services in their own behalf, 
in that of their neighbors and the State at large, would, in a few years, 
greatly outweigh all that had been achieved by the original explorers. 
It is thus in the States of New England, New York, Ohio, Pennsyl- 
vania, New .Jersey and Maryland, that there are scattered every wdiere 
through those communities, numbers of citizens, who having first had 
their attention called to the subject by the scientific men appointed by 
the legislature, have now become fully competent to settle most of 
the questions which arise relating to the values of the unknown min- 
eral substances, which from time to time are submitted by their less 
informed neiglibors for determination. A very observable impulse 
has in this way been given to the development of underground wealth ; 
and many valuable mines are in the course of active exploration, 
which but for these surveys and the attendant consequences of them, 
would now remain not only unproductive but unknown. Nor is the 
mere mineral yield of these mines to be considered in determining the 
advantages that accrue to a community from such enterprises. The 
indirect results to the neighborhood in which the mines are situated, 
are often very great; such, for example, as those flowing from the 
increased demand for farming produce, from the free circulation of 
capital, the improvement of roads, and the general stimulus which is 
always imparted by successful enterprise to the industry of a country. 
I may be permitted to add in conclusion also, that an important ser- 
vice is always rendered true science, in restraining the uninformed 
from unprofitable adventures. 

I liave a wish to see the public survey of North Carolina undertaken, 
not only on account of its economical bearings, but from the conviction 
with vvhich I am impressed, that it will equally promote the progress 
of science, and elevate the character of our country at large. 

I have the honor to remain very iruly and obediently yours, 

CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD. 



1121) 

To the North Carolina Land Cuinpani). 

Raleigh, N. C, April 7, 1869. 

In compliance with your request, I proceed to give you a concise 
statement in relation to the western part of our State, viz: that ele- 
vated table land extending from the Blue Ridge to the Tennessee State 
line. Almost all of it was embraced in the Congressional district 
which I represented for more than a dozen years, and even after I 
became a Senator, I was frequently passing over it. In fact, I have 
ascended almost all the principal mountains, and, for the purpose of 
observing the geological and mineralogical features, visited most of 
its valleys. Its length, extending as it does, from Virginia to Georgia, 
is not less than two hundred and fifty miles, while its breadth varies 
from thirty to sixty miles, averaging probably fifty or thereabouts. 

It has along its eastern border the Blue Ridge, by which name in 
Nor'h Carolina, is designated the mountain chain that divides the 
waters falling into the Atlantic from those of the Mississippi valley. 
Its western boundary is the great ledge of mountains called in differ- 
ent portions of its course. Smoky, Iron, Unaka, &c. Though this 
range is cut through by the streams running to the west, yet it not 
only has many points higher than any along the Blue Ridge, but its 
general elevation and mass are greater. There are also a number of 
cross chains of mountains, the most elevated of which are the Black 
and Balsam ranges. There are many points exceeding six thousand 
feet in altitude above the sea, while the lower valleys or beds of the 
principal streams in the central parts of the plateau, are from two 
thousand to twenty-five hundred feet above tide-water. To give one 
an idea of the general elevation of the surface, it may be stated that 
nineteen-twentieths of the land will be found between the elevations of 
eighteen hundred and thirty-five hundred feet above the level of the 
ocean. It presents therefore, a delightful summer climate, surpassing, 
I think, that of an}' part of Switzerland. The range of the thermom- 
eter in summer is from twelve to fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, below 
that of the northern cities, rarely going up to eighty-five degrees in 
the shade at any hour of the warmest days. The air is almost always 
bracing and exhilerating in a higli degree, while no countr}' is more 
healthy, being not only free from all miasmatic diseases, but favorable 
even in winter. Having a southern latitude and surrounded on all 
sides by lower and warmer regions, its winter climate is much milder 
than that of nortliern Virginia or Pennsylvania. It is unusual for 
the ground to be covered with snow for as much as a week at a time, 
and the deepest snows commonly disappear in two or three days on 
all those portions of the ground exposed to the sunshine. 

In many instance persons threatened with consumption have found 
the climate of Buncombe, about Asheville, both in winter and sum- 
mer, very favorable to them. A gentleman who has passed several 
winters both at Asheville and in Minnesota, says that the climate of 
the former place is quite as dry at that of the latter and much milder. 

The geological formation belongs chiefly to the older series of rocks, 
and they are generally well disintegrated. There is one remarkable 
16 



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exception, however, in a belt of country extending from the Grand- 
father Mountain southerly, embracing the Linville and Table Moun- 
tain ridges. This consists mainly of strata of a more recent origin, 
quartzite, elastic sandstone, (the Itacolumite or diamond bearing rock 
of Brazil) and certain slates. The soil over this belt is thin, and 
covered chiefly with white pine, and such shrubs and plants as are 
found in poor, silicious soils. Outside of this comparatively small 
tract, the soil of the mountain region is remarkable for its fertility. 
The gneiss, mica, slate, S3^enite, and other honblendic and fer- 
ruginous rocks are well decomposed and have liberated in 
great abundance fertilizing ingredients. While no part of the 
section would be termed rocky in comparison with the New 
England States, yet there is more rock visible on the eastern 
border of the belt than on the side next to the State of Tennessee. In 
general the disintegration seems deeper and the soil richer as one 
approaches the western border. The Yellow and Roan Mountains in 
Mitchell, and the great Smoky Mountain in Haywood, Jackson and 
Macon, furnish striking examples of this fact. On those mountains, 
at an elevation of six thousand feet, a horse will often sink to his fet- 
locks in a thick, black, vegetable mould, and the growth, whether 
timber, grass, or weeds, appears to be as luxuriant as in the swamps 
of the low country. Even the balsam fir tree, which is usually of no 
great height, attains an altitude of one hundred and fifty feet on the 
southern side of the great Smoky, a mountain which from its bulk 
and general altitude, has been designated by Professor Guyot as "the 
culminating point of the Alleghanies." The fact that the mountains 
usually become richer as we ascend them, is doubtless due to the cir- 
cumstances that being often enveloped by clouds, and kept cool and 
moist, the vegetable matter slowly decays, and is incorporated with the 
soil, as usually seen on the north or shady side of a hill. 

There is no country of equal extent perhaps better timbered than 
this. Along some of the streams a good deal of white pine and hem- 
lock are to be found, but the forests chiefly consist of hard wood. All 
the varieties of the oak are abundant and attain a great size. The 
white oaks in many places are especially large. So are the chestnut, 
hickory, maple, poplar, or tulip trees, black walnut, locust, and in fact 
probably every known tree that grows in the Middle and Northern 
States of the Union. There are a few treeless tracts on the tops of 
of several of the higher mountains (covered, however, with luxuriant 
grasses) which the aboriginal inhabitants regarded as the foot-prints of 
the evil one, as he stepped from mountain to mountain. 

Among the most beautiful valleys are the upper French Broad and 
Mills River valleys of Henderson and Transylvania. The Swannanoa, 
in Buncombe, the Pigeon river, Richland, and Jonathan's creek flat 
lands in Haywood, and those of the Valley river and Hiawasse in 
Cherokee and portions of the upper Linville in Mitchell. 

While all the counties contain large bodies of fertile land, perhaps 
the soil of Yancey and Mitchell is most generally rich, though the 
lands are more commonly hilly or rolling than they are in several of 



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the other counties. For its valleys and its fertile mountains combined, 
none of the counties perhaps surpass Haywood. 

There are few of the lands of this whole region too steep for cultiva- 
tion. They produce good crops of Indian corn, wheat, oats and rye. 
In contests for prizes in agricultural fairs in Buncombe, from one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty bushels of the former grain have been 
produced. The Irish potato and the turnip will probably do as well as 
in any country whatever, and no region surpasses it for grasses. Tim- 
othy and orchard grass perhaps do best, but clover, red top, and blue 
grass thrive well. This region seems to surpass all others for the pro- 
duction of the apple, both as to size and flavor. Peach trees do well 
and bear abundantly of fine sized fruit, but they rather resemble such 
as are grown in New Jersey for example, and are inferior in flavor to 
those that are produced on the east of the mountains in this State. The 
same may be said of melons. The grape is thrifty and grows abund- 
antly. Besides the Catawba, a native of Buncombe, there are many 
other native varieties, some of which are of good size and delicious 
flavor. As these different kinds do not ripen simultaneously, it would 
be easy to make such selections for cultivation as to lengthen the period 
of vintage and thus increase its product. 

All kinds of live stock can be raised with facility. Sheep in flocks 
of fifty or sixty browse all winter in good conditions. I never saw 
larger sheep anywhere than some I noticed in Hamburg valley, 
Jackson county, the owner of which told me that he had not for twelve 
years past fed his sheep beyond giving them salt to prevent their 
straying away. He said that he had on his first settling there, tried 
feeding them in winter, but observed that this made them very lazy, 
and therefore he had abandoned this practice. The sixty I saw were 
quite as large as any of the sheep I observed once in Regent's Park, 
London, which were said to be the property of Prince Albert. 

Horses and horned cattle are usually driven out into the mountains 
about the first of April and are brought back in November. Within 
six weeks after they have thus been "put into range" they become 
exceedingly fat and sleek. There are, however, on the tops and along 
the sides of the higher mountains, evergreen or winter grasses on 
which the horses and horned cattle live well through the entire winter. 
Such animals are often foaled and reared there until fit for market, 
without ever seeing a cultivated plantation. 

Very little has yet been done with the minerals of this region. 
There are narrow belts of limestone and marble which are sufficient 
for the wants of the inhabitants. Iron ores exist in great abundance 
in many places. The magnetite is found in quantity at many points, 
and where it is being worked at Cranberry Forge, in Mitchell, it yields 
an iron equal to the best Swede. There is in Cherokee county a vein 
of hematite which runs by the side of a belt of marble for forty miles, 
and is in many places from fifty to one hundred feet thick. It is easily 
worked and affords good iron. Copper ores are found in many of the 
counties, and where the veins have been cut in Jackson county, they 
are large and very promising. Gold has been profitably mined in 
Cherokee, Macon and Jackson, and lead, silver and zinc are found at 



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certain points. After the completion of the railroads now in course of 
construction, the chrome ores and barytes may acquire value. 

No country is better supplied with water power than this. The 
streams attain a sufficient size in the higher valleys, and before they 
escape in the State of Tennessee they have a descent of a thousand feet. 
The French Broad at Asheville is larger than the Merrimac at Lowell, 
and falls six hundred feet in the distance of thirty odd miles, and will 
soon have a railroad along its banks. Every neighborhood has its 
waterfalls sufficient for all practical purposes. 

The prices of land throughout this entire section are very moderate 
compared with those of similar lands in the Northern States, while 
the population, though sparse, is quiet, orderly and moral. The 
negroes, not constituting one-tenth of the entire population, are 
scarcely an appreciable element. Emigrants with little capital can 
easily obtain the necessaries of life, and may at once commence the 
business of stock raising, and cheese, butter and wool, and such agri- 
cultural productions as will best bear transportation. Manufacturing 
and mining operations will soon follow these branches of industry. I 
have no doubt if the people of the Northern States knew this region as 
I do they would move down in large bodies immediately to take posses- 
sion of it. The pleasant climate, good soil and beautiful scenery make 
it one of the most attractive countries in the world. The wealthy 
citizen will find the greatest inducements to place there his charming 
villa, while to the industrious it will afford a comfortable home 

Very respectfully, &c., T. L. CLINGMAN. 



Extracts from, a paper addressed to Wm. Erasier, Esq., President of 
the American Agricultural and Mineral Land Company, Ney^ York, 
June VhtK 1867. 

*********** 

Mr. "William McDowell, who made observations for the Smithsonian 
Institute, at Asheville, for several years, informed me that the ther- 
mometer during the warmest summer weather did not rise above eighty- 
two degrees Fahrenheit. Even the climate of Switzerland is not equal to 
thatof this region; not only at Geneva, but in the high valley of Chamonny, 
I once found hotter weather than I ever experienced in this section; while 
there, one is occasionally chilled in mid-summer by cold blasts from the 
masses of snow on the higher Alps. In Western North Carolina none 
of the mountains are high enough to hear snow in summer, yet the 
region is sufficiently elevated to afford a climate which is cool, dry, 
bracing and exceedingly exhilerating. No country is more healthy, 
being alike free from the diseases of miasmatic regions, as well as those 
common in rigorous or damp climates. 

What especially distinguishes this section from all other mountain 
regions that I have seen, is the general fertility of its soil. This is true 
not only with reference to its valleys, but also of its mountains. Their 
sides and even tops are generally covered with a thick vegetable mould, 
on which the largest trees and grasses grow luxuriantly. At an eleva- 



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tion of five thousand feet above the ocean, the grasses and weeds are so 
rank as to remind one of the swampy lands of the lower regions. On 
the tops, and for a considerable distance down the sides of the higher 
chains, there are several varieties of evergreen or " winter grasses," as 
they are generally called there. These are so nutritions that cattle are 
kept in good condition on them all the winter. A friend of mine, before 
the war, kept four or five hundred horned cattle on one of these moun- 
tains, and with the exception that they were supplied with salt occa- 
sionally, they subsisted entirely both in summer and winter on these 
grasses. The older cattle, he assured me, soon learned to understand the 
efi^ect of the seasons, and without being driven, they led the herds, in 
the spring, down the sides of the mountain to obtain the young grasses 
that come up with the warm weather, and when these were destroyed 
by the autumn frosts they returned to the tops to get the evergreen veg- 
etation, and found shelter under the spreading branches of the balsam fir 
trees in stormy weather. I have seen in Haywood county a five year 
old horse that was said to have been foaled and reared entirely on the 
top of Balsam Mountain, and was then for the first time brought down 
to see cultivated land and eat food grown by the hand of man. 

Those portions of the mountain that are Mnthout timber are, of course, 
covered by the thickest coats of grass. The balsam trees which cover 
for so great an extent the Great Smoky, Balsam, and Black Mountains, 
could be easily gotten rid of at a cost of not more than a couple of dol- 
lars per acre. It is so soft as to be easily cut, and if felled and suffered 
to lie a few months, its leaves would become quite dry, and it might be 
burned with the greatest facility. When thus destroyed it would not 
spring up again, but in its stead a very thick sward of evergreen grass. 
Immense winter pastures could in this way be prepared, and thousands 
of cattle thus sustained in the winter, with only an occasional supply 

of salt. 

************ 

Last summer I went with Mr. N. W. AYoodfin over a mountain farm 
of his, the land of which had originally cost him less than one dollar per 
acre. It had been cleared by cutting out the undergrowth, and girding 
the large timber so as to deaden it, and then put in grass, nearly twenty 
years previously. It was covered over with a thick gi'owth of timothy 
and orchard grass, much of which appeared as thick and as tall as a fair 
wheat field. In some places we found both of these grasses rising high 
enough, as we sat on our horses, for us to take the top of the stalks 
growing on each side, and cause them to meet above the withers of our 
horses. I never, in fact, saw better grass anywhere than grew generally 
over this entire tract of twelve hundred acres. 

Irish potatoes, cabbages and turnips are grown in the greatest quan- 
tities, while no country excels this for fruits. Its apples, both in size and 
flavor, excel those that I have seen in any part of the world; while 
peaches, pears and grapes grow abundantly. Besides the Catawba, there 
are a great many other native grapes. One gentleman thinks he has 
obtained a hundred varieties of native grapes, some of which he con- 
siders superior to the Catawba. That this country is admirably adapted 
to the jU'oduction of grapes and wine there can be no question. The 
fact that varieties of grapes can be selected, that ripen at different periods 



(126) 

ot the autumn, will make the vintage longer than it is in Europe, and 

thus increase the amount of wine made. AH kinds of live stock thrive 

in the country, though horses and horned cattle have been more generally 

raised, because they require less care from the farmer. Sheep are very 

healthy, and grow well everywhere. As large sheep as I ever saw were 

some tliat were suffered to run in the woods, both in summer and winter, 

without being fed. Mr. Woodfin also stated to me, that he could, from 

the stock of his farm above alluded to, at all periods of the winter obtain 

good mutton and beef from the animals that were subsisted on the grass. 

Even when sheep are to be kept in large numbers, it is certain that they 

would do with half the feeding they require during the long winters in 

New England. Snow seldom remains many days at a time, even on the 

mountain tops in North Carolina; and when the grass is good, little is 

required in the form of hay or other food for the stock. 

*********** 

T. L. CLINGMAK 



THE CLIMATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, AND ITS HEALTH- 
FULNESS FOR CONSUMPTIVES AND OTHERS. 

[PubUshecl in the Daily Nokth Carolina Standakd, May 25th, 1869.] 

• To Ricliard Kingsland, Esq. 

Raleigh, N. C, May 24, 1869. 
Dear Sir : — I take pleasure in complying with your request, to state 
in writing, the substance of my conversation with you on the subject 
of vegetation in the upper parts of the State. This has been the third 
of a series of springs remarkable for dampness and coolness. I have 
noticed them particularly, because it was stated in the newspapers two 
years ago last winter, that the earthquakes occurring at that time, had 
by elevating portions of the bed of the ocean, changed the current of 
the gulf stream, and thrown it much nearer to our coast. I have no 
means of knowing whether there is in fact a foundation for such a 
statement, but if it were true, it might be expected to produce some 
changes of climate. The warm air arising from a body of water of 
high temperature, saturated with moisture, brought into contact with 
the colder air of the land winds, would of course on being chilled, let 
go a portion of its water which would thereupon be condensed into 
fog or cloud. The moist climate of Ireland and England is attributed 
to the fact that a large portion of the Northern Atlantic Ocean is 
covered by water from the Gulf Stream, which has a temperature of ten 
or twelve degrees higher than the surrounding ocean, and hence the 
westerly winds carry the air from that region, saturated with moisture, 
to these countries. Similar results are produced in other localities by 
ocean currents. If the Gulf Stream is now exerting such an influence 
on our climate, we must hereafter expect similar weather in the spring 
to continue until the advance of summer makes the air of the land as 
warm as the sea, when the precipitation of fog would cease. These 
three damp, cool springs, however, may be only accidental, but if our 



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climate is to be permanently changed, it is interesting to examine 
what is to be the effect on agricultural industry. It is my opinion that 
the change will be upon the whole beneficial. It is true the cotton 
has been injured, but if we have late and dry autumns like the two 
last, late planting might keep up the productions to the former stand- 
ard. Corn must also be planted a little later, with, however, no bad 
result. Small grain crops will, I think, be on the whole improved, 
while grass is unusually fine. When I was at Morganton a few weeks 
since, my attention was called to a lot of clover of Mr. Walton's, which 
several gentlemen who had traveled much, thought as fine for that 
period of the year, as they had ever seen. On going over to Asheville 
in a few days, however, I saw some of Dr. Hilliard's of Buncombe, 
which notwithstanding the late season, was much finer. I also 
observed on some ground of Mr. Winslow Smith, most remarkable 
orchard grass, so luxuriant and rank that an English gentleman with 
me, who had been a great traveler, at first doubted that it was really 
orchard grass. All the grounds of that region, and in fact of the 
upper portion of the State, show unusually good grasses. Should our 
climate become moist and cool like that of England, why should we 
not have as fine grain and grasses? If these springs are to be the rule 
I am satisfied that the State will, as a whole, be much benefitted even 
though less cotton be made. 

It may not be out of place for me to say something of the new grass 
called Japan clover, which is seen in a few places west of the Blue 
Ridge, but which seems to be rapidly covering the counties on this 
side of it to the extent of more than a hundred miles. None of the 
causes hitherto assigned for the rapid spread of this grass are suffi- 
cient to account for or explain the facts, and its progress appears 
miraculous. It does not seem to interfere with the fields in active 
cultivation, nor even to penetrate much into the oak forests, but it 
seizes with avidity upon old fields, whether covered by pines or broom- 
sedge grass. It manifests an especial hostility to the last named plant, 
slaughtering it without mercy, and ultimately exterminating it as an 
useless "cumberer of the ground." It spreads undqr the pines a beau- 
tiful emerald green carpet, thick and elastic. It also takes possession 
of gullies and all abandoned portions of the roads, and will probably 
take hold of embankments and sides of cuts of railroads, so as to ren- 
der unnecessary turfing them in the manner in which it is done in 
England. Hogs, sheep, horned cattle and horses all seem to devour 
it greedily, and appear to thrive on it. Should it furnish a good pas- 
ture for seven or eight months in the year to such stock, great benefit 
will be the result. Covering the ground so densely and shading it 
effectually, it will soon improve the abandoned lands. 

I was at the North a few weeks ago, and from what I saw and have 
since learned, measured b}'' the vegetation in the western part of this 
State, the spring is two months earlier than it is in New York and 
New England. Every one must see what advantage this gives our 
agriculture. 

There is another subject directly connected with the industry of the 
country of great importance, however, on which I wish to say some- 



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thing to 3-0U. Thousands of persons annually die of consumption 
and other lung diseases in the Northern States. For persons afflicted 
with these diseases the cold climate of Minnesota has been recom- 
mended because of its dryness, and so also has Aiken and other 
localities in the South. Some publications have recently been made 
by scientific and professional gentlemen, showing that the climate of 
portions of the mountain region of this State are equal to Minnesota 
in dryness, and superior in equability and mildness of temperature, 
and that the greater elevation, dryness and cooler summer weather, 
make it better for such invalids than Aiken, for example, elevation 
being one of the most important elements. The observations made 
for the use of the Smithsonian Institute, at Asheville, have been care- 
fully examined, and it has been shown that the place has a climate 
almost identical with that of Milan, in Italy, and Vienne, in France, 
both of which are the resorts of invalids. ' In none of these publi- 
cations, however, is there an explanation of the physical causes which 
have produced there a climate not only cool in the summer, but 
uncommonly dry and bracing. Unless these facts are understood, 
persons may be misled in selecting the best place for health. Though 
all the mountain region of this State is quite salubrious, it would be 
a great mistake to suppose that all of it, or the plateau of the Cum- 
berland Mountain, in Tennessee, had a climate as dry as that of Ashe- 
ville. The belt of country which has the dryest climate, does not in 
fact constitute more than one-fourth, or even so much of one mountain 
region. 

When, many years ago, I became a resident of Asheville, I was 
struck by the singular appearances there observed. In winter, with 
winds from the northeast, we often had for days light, broken bunches 
of clouds floating along the heavens, with sky more or less constantly 
visible, while to the east there appeared heavy masses, and even a few 
miles to the west the quantity of cloud was much greater than over 
the immediate region where I stood. A little snow fell, but not 
enough to cover the ground; and yet, when I went twenty miles to 
the east into McDowell county, I often found three or four inches of 
snow% and the like frequently in Haywood county, on the west. Simi- 
lar facts were manifested in the summer, viz: weather somewhat 
cloudy, with little rain at Asheville; more, however, a few miles west, 
and considerable rains on the east side of the Blue Ridge, in McDowell. 
I began to examine the configuration of the mountain chains, and 
soon satisfied myself that I understood the cause of these phenomena. 

It is known that a current of air, saturated with moisture, in rising 
to pass over a mountain, is rarified, cooled, and will let go a portion 
of its moisture, which is thereupon condensed into minute drops of 
water, making fog or cloud. One often sees, for hours in succession, 
a small patch of cloud hovering about the top of a mountain, even 
when a strong gale of wind is blowing, and some persons wonder why 
the wind does not carry off" this little mass of white cloud, making a 
mistake unlike that of a person, who, observing the cataract of 
Niagara from a distance, should take it to be a column of water stand- 
ing still all day. As soon as this cloud is carried down into a warmer 



( 129) 

region, it at once disappears by being reconverted into invisible vapor, 
the air ceasing to precipitate moisture, and becoming one of evapor- 
ation again, or a drying air. This is illustrated on a large scale near 
the Rocky Mountains, on the western slopes of which the winds from 
the Pacific ocean deposit their moistnre, while on the east there is so 
little rain that extensive deserts exist. The country around Asheville 
is under the influence of similar causes, but not to an extent sufficient 
to make a desert or even perceptibly to diminish vegetation. It is 
merely somewhat drier than the surrounding regions. 

This condition results from such a configuration of the country as 
will be apparent to any one who examines it carefully. There is a 
belt of table land, about the centre of which is at Asheville, extending 
for nearly seventy miles in a northwestwardly and southeasterly 
direction, but somewhat nearer to the northern and southern points 
than to the eastern and western. It is fifteen miles in breadth, per- 
haps twenty at some points, and has an average elevation of twenty- 
two or three hundred feet above the sea. Though it seems broken to 
one traveling over it, yet when one ascends an eminence he sees what 
appears to be a level plateau of which Henderson county embraces the 
southern, and Buncombe the centre and Madison the northern portion. 
Only, however, the central parts of these counties lie within the belt. 
The French Broad river in Henderson is but little below the adjoining 
hills. At Asheville it has sunk two hundred and fifty feet, and in the 
northern portions of Madison it has cut a channel eight or nine hun- 
dred feet deep, below the hills, half a mile distant from it. There is 
no cross mountain chain or any considerable obstruction across this 
long plateau. Hence the winds from the west and northwest, these 
being the prevailing winds throughout the year, move unobstructed 
along this belt with a rapid current and a dry and exhilirating air. 
In fact, where the course of a current of air comes near the direction 
of this belt, it seems drawn into and accelerated like the waters of a 
river along a narrow pass. About Asheville, therefore, it is never 
sultry except for a short period, sometimes before a thunder shower. 

Most of the rains, however, of the western part of this State, are 
brought by winds from the east and from the southwest. Fifteen 
miles to the east and to the southeast of Asheville, extends the Blue 
Ridge Mountain, with an average elevation of fifteen hundred feet, 
probably, above it. The easterly and southeasterly winds precipitate 
a portion of their moisture on the eastern slopes of this mountain, 
and after passing it and descending to a lower attitude, the}^ become 
comparatively dryer, and often cease to drop rain at all. The most 
disagreeable weather that visits the Atlantic States, however, is that 
accompanied by the northeasterly winds. Against them there is a 
still greater barrier afforded by Craggy, the Black Mountain, and a 
third ridge running to the north, the highest position of which is 
called Yeates' Knob. This mass of mountains b'ing on the northeast 
of Asheville, and attaining an elevation of more than six thousand 
feet above the sea, or four thousand feet above the table land, presents 
a barrier against the northeastern storms, so formidable that the 
clouds are broken to pieces and fall over it in scattered fragments. 
17 



(130) 

The southwesterly winds, however, bring much rain, often continu- 
ing for days at a time. Against them, however, nature has furnished 
a protection. From the Great Smoky Mountain, at a point a little to 
the north of west from Asheville, the Balsam Mountain, the longest of 
the cross chains, extends itself entirel}' over the State to the borders of 
South Carolina. It attains a general height of at least six thousand 
feet, and with its spurs extending somewhat towards Asheville, the 
Cold Mountain and Pisgah ridges, for a hundred degrees in distance, 
it breaks the force of the southwestern winds. It thus happens that 
most of the rain-bearing winds, before reaching this region, have, by 
passing over higher lands, lost a portion of their moisture, and the 
atmosphere, therefore, of the tract, is comparatively a dry one. 

The Greenbrier White Sulpher Springs, in Virginia, are only five 
hundred feet lower than Asheville, and yet, from its surroundings, it 
is not only often damper, but also much hotter. At Burnsville, in 
Yancey county, forty miles north of Asheville, and six hundred feet 
higher, and in winter much colder, I have seen it in like manner 
warmer in summer, because surrounded by mountains, which obstruct 
the currents of air. I also, once in the Alps, while crossing a ridge of 
several thousand feet elevation, because enclosed by high mountains, 
found very sultry weatlier. 

I do not mean to have it understood that we have not at Asheville 
often disagreeable periods, but merely to state that there is less bad 
weather at that point than I have observed at other places with which 
I am acquainted. I think that a large percentage of people who 
annually die of lung diseases in the North-eastern States might attain 
the average longevity if they were to remove to this region. Persons 
threatened with consumption, whose means permit, might derive quite 
as much advantage from visiting that locality as the Southern planters 
who have been accustomed to travel to the Virginia Springs, to Sara- 
toga and to Newport. 

"By calling their attention to this subject you may, sir, render essen- 
tial service to the cause of humanity. 

Respectfully yours, T. L. CLINGMAN. 

To Mk. R. Kingsland. 



OLD DIGGINGS FOR MICA IN AVESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 

Asheville, April 8, 1873. 
Messrs. Carter & Avery, 

Gentlemen: In reply to your inquiries with reference to the mica 
deposits in this section of the State, and the appearance of early opera- 
tion for the same, I can now, before leaving town, only present you a 
brief statement. 

The old Cherokee Indians, living in some of the western counties, 
used to speak of a tradition coming down in their tribe, that long ago 
companies of white men came on mules from the south, worked during 
the summer, and carried off a white metal with them. The remains 



(131) 

of some old works in Cherokee county seem to give countenance to 
this report, and, at one place at least, present the appearance of having 
been excavated by persons skilled in mining. The fact that they were 
abandoned before much work was done, would rather imply that they 
were mere tests, which had proved unsuccessful. 

There are, however, in other localities, numerous remains of old 
excavations, some of which are much more extensive, and which were 
done in a different formation. In the year 1867, and in the early part 
of 1868, I examined several of these localities in the counties of 
Cleveland, Rutherford and Burke, on the east side of the Blue Ridge, 
and in Mitchell, Yancey and Buncombe. In most instances the work 
had been slight, showing that it had been done as a mere experiment, 
which had not proven satisfactory. In several localities, however, it 
was very manifest that the operators had met with such success as to 
cause them to extend their working generally. In every case I 
examined, the outcrop of the veins was so similar as to leave no doubt 
but that the parties had found at certain localities some mineral of 
value to them, and that wherever they had observed like indications 
they had made tests. Again, from the fact that they never worked in 
hard ground — that is, where the work required blasting — it was evident 
that they were not provided with the means of blasting. 

At every one of the places I examined, mica was abundant in veins 
composed chiefly of felspar and quartz, the former generally predomi- 
nating. The mica left among the debris was generally in small flakes, 
except at Mr. Garrett Ray's, on the waters of Bolin's creek, where a 
number of large sheets had been left. This last mentioned fact 
seemed to indicate that the mica itself had not been the object of the 
exploration. 

The most extensive of all the excavations was that on the land of 
Mr. Wm. Slivers, in Mitchell county, near the road from Burnsville to 
Bakersville. From the appearances there, it would seem that a large 
number of miners had been at work for years at that place. In the 
excavations, extending for about 'four hundred yards, they had at 
intervals left bars across as if to prevent the earth at the sides from 
falling in — making thus a succession of openings fifty or sixty feet in 
extent, separated by narrow ridges of earth. Timber which I examined 
that had grown on the earth thrown out, had been growing as long as 
three hundred years. Near one of the workings, not far from this 
place, I also saw a slab of stone that had evidently been marked by 
blows of a metallic tool, and which had, from the appearance about it, 
been most probably intended to mark the locality. 

As the manner in which the work had been done at Mr. Sliver's 
resembled that sometimes practiced by the Mexicans, it seemed possi- 
ble that a party of Spaniards — about the time when Cortes was in 
Mexico and De Soto was in Florida^might have rambled up into this 
region and, by employing the Indians as laborers, in the course of a 
few years have caused such explorations to have been made. On 
examining the material about the place, I found fragments that had 
been thrown out very like in their appearance some of the best Mexi- 
can silver ores. Several western miners, to whom the specimens were 



(132) 

shown in New York, prior to an assay, expressed great confidence that 
they would go to two or three hundred dollars in silver per ton. An 
assay, however, seemed to show only three dollars per ton. I caused 
it to be repeated, and had the same reply. This would seem to indi- 
cate that these were bits discarded because too poor, but that the work 
had perhaps been prosecuted for silver. I caused, therefore, a shaft to 
be sunk, and two tunnels to be carried entirely below the old excava- 
tions, and became satisfied that there was no workable silver ore to be 
found there. Large mica of good quality was abundant. It seemed 
certain that this work had all been done for mica. But the question 
more difficult to answer, presented itself; by whom could this work 
have been executed ? The Norsemen were on our coast as far back as 
six or seven centuries ago; they might have penetrated into the inte- 
rior, and by employing the natives have caused these works to be 
executed, and carried the mica away to be used as window-lights for 
their huts, as the inhabitants of the Arctic regions are said sometimes 
to do. But on the other hand I have been informed that mica has 
been found with other Indian ornaments and implements in certain 
caves in Tennessee, and perhaps elsewhere. It does not, therefore, 
seem improbable that a former race of Indians — possibly the "Mound- 
builder," who used copper tools — made these excavations for the pur- 
pose of procuring the mica. 

These veins are found in the gneiss and mica slate strata, which 
constitute the greater portion of the rocks of this region. The ele- 
ments of their composition are identical with those of these strata, and 
even of cla}^ slate. The difference is wholly in the structure of the 
veins, and not in their elements. In the veins the felspar, which usually 
predominates, exists tolerably pure, the quartz in lumps or large masses, 
and the mica in crystals of various sizes, sometimes weighing several 
hundred pounds. Near the surface the felspar, converted by atmos- 
pheric action into kaolin, presents chalky looking belts, with quartz 
lying in lumps of different sizes, and more or less mica scattered 
around. 

As almost all the rocky strata of this and the adjoining counties 
consist in great part of mica, persons must expect to find it every- 
where. For commercial purposes, it is to be sought therefore where it 
exists in places of some size, is sufficiently transparent, and is free from 
such contortions and flaws as prevent its being split into thin sheets. 
Though the sizes of the chrystals will vary in different parts of the 
vein, they are likely to be as large at the surface as deeper down. That 
found at the surface, however, is usually injured by exposure to the 
weather, which in time, decomposes it, and is also disfigured by 
the clay carried into its seams. Unless within a few feet of the sur- 
face some mica of fair size is found, there would not seem to be 
encouragement to expend much labor in explorations. 

Besides the valuable mines now being operated on in the counties 
of Mitchell and Yancey, I have seen from two localities in the southern 
part of this county, Buncombe, mica of fine size and good quality. 
Such is also found in the counties of Haywood, Jackson and Macon to 
the west, and as far east as Lincoln and Catawba. There seems to be 



(133) 

no doubt but that there is a tract of country of more than one hun- 
dred and fifty miles in extent capable of producing good mica, in 
quantities sufficient to supply a very large demand. Should that 
demand continue, these mines might be worked profitably to the 
depth of a thousand feet or more, and for centuries to come. 

No other mineral of much commercial value has yet been found in 
the mica veins, but it is to be hoped that at some point or other the 
beryls found may occur in the form of emeralds. I have seen two 
or three transparent white beryls, and several small aquamarines, some 
of which I had cut. This last mineral, though used as a gem, is, in 
fact, worth little more than the cost of cutting it. As however the 
emerald owes its fine green color to the presence of less than one per 
cent, of the oxyd of chromium, and as chrome ore is widely dis- 
persed throughout this section, we may hope that at some point 
emeralds may be found. I need scarcely remind you that the emerald 
ranks next in value to the ruby and the diamond. 
Very respectfully 3'ours, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 



MOUNT PISGAII, NORTH CAROLINA. 



By Hon. T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[From Appleton'.s Journal, December 27, 1873.] 

Many of our readers have learned, from the careful measurements of 
Professor Arnold Guyot, of Princeton — prosecuted as they were through 
three summers — that there are in North Carolina al)ont thirty designated 
mountain-peaks that surpass in altitude Mount Washington, of New 
Hampshire. The elevated area of North Cai'olina is more than two hun- 
dred miles in length, by an average breadth of fifty miles. Its eastern 
boundary is the Blue Ridge, which separates the waters of the Atlantic 
from those falling into the Mississippi. It attains its greatest elevation 
at the Grandfather Monntain. The western boundary of this plateau is 
the great Alleghany chain, which, though cut by the rivers through 
several passes, has a greater general elevation, and many higher peaks, 
than any in the Blue Ridge. 

Through North Carolina this range is known in its course by the sev- 
eral names of Roan, ITnaka, Iron and Smoky. The last name indicates 
that portion which, from its extent, large mass, great altitude, and the 
number and height of the ridges connected with it, has been pronounced 
by Professor Guyot the culminating point of the Alleghanies. Its highest 
peak, as measured and named l)y him, appears on the maps of the Coast 
Survey as Clingnuin's Dome. 

Besides these great ranges, there are a number of cross-chains, the 
most prominent of which are the Black and the Balsam. The last of 
these, from its extent, and general altitude, and the great number of its 
peaks, surpassed only by those of the Black and fenioky, is the most 
important of all the cross-chains. It extends from the Smoky, across 



(134) 

the State, to the border of South Carolina, and, for the distance of nearly 
fifty miles it is covered by the Balsam trees, from which it takes its name. 

On some of the old maps, at a point in its course, one may see marked 
"Devil's Old Field." This spot must not be confounded with the 
"Devil's Supreme Court-House," in which the devil, according to Chero- 
kee lore, was to try all mankind at the last day. This Devil's Court- 
House, situated twenty miles west, on the border of Jackson and Macon 
counties, is an immense ]->recipice, nearly a mile long, and eighteen hun- 
dred feet high, being so curved as to form a part of the arc of a circle. 
When one in front looks at its concave surface, he sees, half-way up, an 
immense opening, which constitutes the throne of the author of evil, 
where bad spirits are to hear their doom. 

But the Devil's Old Field is an opening of several hundred acres on 
the top of the Balsam range. The Cherokees regard the treeless tracts, 
at various points on the mountains, as the footprints of Satan, as he 
stepped from mountain to mountain. This old field, however, being his 
favorite resting-place, was more extensive than were his mere footprints. 
In fact, this was his chosen sleeping-place. Once, on a hot suramey day, 
a party of irreverent Indians, rambling through the dense forests of 
balsam and rhododendrons, suddenly came into the edge of the open 
ground, and with their unseendy chattering, woke his majesty from his 
siesta. Being irritated, as peo])le often are when disturbed before their 
nap is out, he suddenly, in the form of an immense serpent, swallowed 
fifty of them before they could get back into the thicket. Ever after this 
sad occurrence, the Cherokees, as the sailors say, gave this locality " a 
wide berth." 

After the whites got into the country, a set of hunters, known by the 

name of Q , either by daring or diplomacy got on better terms with 

the old fellow. As their reputation was anything but good, envious 
].>eople used to say that they escaped injury at the liands oV Satan upon 
the same principle that prevents a sow from eating her own pigs. These 
Q— — 's spoke in favorable terms of the personal cleanliness of his 
majesty, and his regard for comfort, asserting that they had gone to the 
large, overhanging rock, in the centre of the field where he slept, and, 
out of mischief, in the evening had throwm rocks and brushwood on his 
bed, and that next morning the place was invariably as clean as if it had 
been brushed with a bunch of feathers. Of late years no one has seen 
him in those parts, and it is believed that, either tired of the loneliness of 
the place, or because he could do better elsewhere, he has emigrated. 

JSIear the southern end of the Balsam Mountain, two spurs leave it on 
the east side and run out for a dozen miles toward the north. x\s one 
goes along the most westerly of the two, he comes to the Shining Kock, 
an immense mass of quartz so white as to resemble loaf-sugar. Though 
the lightning for thousands of years has with furious anger launched its 
bolts against it, the mass, standing like an imniense edifice of snowy 
marble, glitters in the distance, and is not unaptly termed the Shining 
Rock. A few miles further along, the ridge rises into an angular emi- 
nence more than six thousand feet high, known as the Cold Moun- 
tain. The name was applied on account of this occurrence: Several 
hunters were on the top of the mountain when It was covered by a thick 
sleet. The heels of one of them, to use a skater's phrase, "flew up," 



( 135 ) 

causing him to sit down very suddenly. Instead, however, of his 
reniainini^ quietly thus at rest, the merciless action of the force of gravity, 
conspiring with the inclination of the ground, caused him to slide rapidly 
"for a couple of hundred yards down tlie mountain-side. When finally 
he did bring up in a bank of snow, he was decidedly of opinion that this 
mountain was the coldest one he liad ever seen. In fact, when after- 
wards questioned if he was not veiy cold, he said: "Yes, as cold as Cicero 
in his coldest moment !" He had doubtless heard some local orator pro- 
nounced " as eloquent as Cicero," and thus concluded that the old Roman 
was a man of sui)erlatives generally. Since that day the peak has 
rejoiced in the name of Cold Mountain. 

'The twin-ridge, which, leaving the Balsam near the same locality, 
gradually diverges to the east, terminates in the beautiful peak Mount 
Pisgah, of which a view is given. Its top, five thousand seven hundred 
and fifty-seven feet above the sea, is a triangular sliaped pyramid. 
Standing alone as it does, it affords a magnificent view for a hundred 
miles around. It forms the corner of the four counties of Buncombe, 
Henderson, Transylvania, and Haywood. 

The view presented is from the valley of Homony creek, at a point 
a little to the east of north from the mountain. From whatever direction 
it is seen, its outline is not less pointed than it is in this picture, and is 
always a striking object before the eye of the spectator. Though one 
must travel twenty-two miles from Asheville to reach its summit, its dis- 
tance in a direct line is under fifteen. Its beautiful blue on a sunimer 
evening is sometimes changed into a rich purple by the rays of a red 
cloud thrown over it at sun'set. In winter it is even a still more striking 
object. Covered by a fresh snow in the morning, its various ridges 
present their outlines so sharply, that it seems as if they had lieen carved 
by a chisel into innumerable de})ressions and elevations. After one or 
two day's sunshine, the snow disappears on the ridges, but rejnains in 
the valleys. The mountain then seems covered from summit to base 
with alternate bands of virgin white, and a blue more intense and beau- 
tiful than the immortal sky itself presents. 

While there are many views to be seen from Asheville and its vicinity 
that from McDowell's Hill, two miles south, is the best. When there, 
one sees in the west Pisgah, the Cold Mountain, and some of the highest 
peaks of the Balsam, with many intervening ranges; while to the north- 
east rises the great mass of Craggy, with its numerous spurs crowned by 
its pyramid and dome, and the southern point of the Black in the dis- 
tance. The beautiful Swannanoa makes a handsome curve as it passes 
through the green carpet two hundred feet below, to unite with the 
French Broad, which seems to come afar from the base of Pisgah. One 
who has not been there, has yet to see the finest scene in North Carolina, 
probably not equaled by any east of the Mississippi. 



(136) 



MOUNTAIN SCENERY. 



Extract fromi a letter loritten ifi 1855, to Professor Joseph Ilerwy^ of 
the Smithsonian Institution. 



From the head of the Swannanoa, at Mr. Stepps', where an angler can 
find speckled trout, there is an easy way to the Mountain House, built 
by William Patton, of Charleston, South Carolina. Its present occu- 
pant will provide one with pleasant lodgino^s, and, what mountain jour- 
neys render so welcome, all such comforts "for the inner man," as this 
region affords, with fresh salmon from Scotland, and champagne from 
France, to make them go down easily. After resting here awhile, at the 
height of five thousand four hundred and sixty (5,460) feet above the 
sea-level, two miles of travel on horseback, as hundreds of ladies can tes- 
tify, will bring him to the top of Mount Mitchell. 

When one is upon this peak, he appears to be on a centre, from which 
there run off five immense mountain chains. To the northward stretches 
the main ledge of the Black, with a succession of cones and spires along 
its dark crest. Ou its right, from the far northeast, from the Keystone 
State, across the entire breadth of Virginia, seemingly from an immeas- 
urable distance, comes the long line of the Blue Ridge or Alleghany ; 
but when it passes almost under him, it is comparatively so much 
depressed as scarcely to be perceptible, save where at the point of junc- 
tion, stimulated by the presence of its gigantic neighbor, it shoots up 
into a pinnacle so steep, that, to use a hunter's phrase, it would "make 
a buzard's head swim, if he were to attempt to fly over it." Thence it 
runs southerly, till it touches South Carolina, when it trends to the west, 
and is soon hidden behind collossal masses that obstruct further vision 
in that direction. As the chain of the Black sweeps around westwardly, 
it is soon parted into two immense branches, which run off in opposite 
courses. The northern terminates in a majestic pile, with a crown-like 
summit, and numerous spurs from its base; while to the south there 
leads off the long ridge of Craggy, with its myriads of gorgeous flowers, 
its naked slopes and fantastic peaks, over which dominates its great 
dome, challenging in its altitude ambitious comparison with the Black 
itself. 

Let the observer then lift his eye to a remote distance, and take a cir- 
cuit in the opposite direction. Looking to the southeast and to the east, 
he sees beyond King's Mountain, and others less known to fame, the 
plain of the two Caroliuas stretched out over an illimitable space, in 
color and outline indistinguishable from the "azure brow" of the calm 
ocean. Nearer to him, to the northeast, over the Linville Mountain, 
stands squarely upright the Table Rock, with its perpendicular faces ; 
and its twin brother, the " Hawk-bill," with its curved beak of overhang- 
ing rock, and neck inclined, as if in act to stoop down on the plain below. 
Further on, there rises in solitary grandeur the rocky throne of the abrupt 
and wild Grandfather. This " ancient of days " was long deemed the 
" monarch of mountains," but now, like other royal exiles, he only 



(137) 

retains a shadow of his former authority in a patriarchal name, given 
because of the grey beard he shows when a frozen cloud has iced his 
rhododendrons. Westward of him stands a victorious rival, tlie gently 
undulating prairie of the Roan, stretcliing out for many a mile in length, 
until its green and flowery carpet is terminated by a castellated crag — 
the Bluff. 

From this extends southerly the long but broken line of the Unaka, 
through the passes of wliicli, far away over the entire vallej^ of East 
Tennessee, is seen in the distance the blue outline of the Cumberland 
Mountains, as they penetrate the State of the " dark and bloody 
ground." In contrast with the bold aspect and rugged chasms of the 
Unaka, stands the stately figure of the Bald Mountain, its smoothly- 
shaven and regularly rounded top bringing to mind some classic 
cupola; for when the sunlight sleeps upon its convex head, it seems a 
temple more worthy of all the gods than that Pantheon, its famed 
Roman rival. As the eye again sweeps onward, it is arrested by the 
massive pile of the great Smoky Mountain, darkened by its fir trees, 
and often by the cloud}^ drapery it wears. From thence there stretches 
quite through Haywood and Henderson to South Carolina's border, the 
long range of the Balsam Mountain, its pointed steeples over-topping 
the Cold Mountain and Pisgali, and attaining probably their greatest 
elevation towards the head of the French Broad river. 

Besides these, the eye rests on many a "ripe green valley," with its 
winding streams, and on many a nameless peak, like pyramid or tower, 
and many a waving ridge, imitating in its curling shapes the billows of the 
ocean when most lashed by the tempest. And if one is favored by Jove, 
he may perchance hear the sharp, shrill scream of his " cloud-cleaving 
minister," and, as he sweeps l)y with that bright eye which "pierces 
downward, onward or above, with a pervading vision," or encircles him 
in wide curves, shows reflected back from the golden brown of his long 
wings, 

"The westering beams aslant" 

of the descending sun. 

But from Mount Mitchell, where one is still tempted to linger, since 
my first visit a way has been opened quite to the highest point. As 
one rides along the undulating crest of the ridge, he has presented to 
him a succession of varied, picturesque, and beautiful views. Some- 
times he passes through open spots, smooth and green enough to be the 
dancing grounds of the fairies, and anon he plunges into dense forests 
of balsam, over grounds covered by thick beds of moss, so soft and elastic 
that a wearied man reposes on it as he would on a basin of fluid mercury. 
In the last and largest of the little prairies, one will be apt to pause 
awhile, not only for the sake of the magnificent panorama in the distance, 
but also because attracted by the gentle beauty of the spot, its grassy, 
waving surface, interspersed with flattened rocky seats, studded in the 
sunlight with glittering scales of mica, and here and there clusters of 
• young balsams flourishing in their freshest and richest green, in this, 
their favorite climate, pointed at top, but spreading below evenly till 
their lower branches touch the earth, and presenting the outlines of 
regular cones. 

18 



(138) 

From this place the highest peak is soon attained. Any one who 
doubts its altitude raa_y thus easily satisfy himself, for it stands, and will 
continue to stand, courting measurement. One who, from the eminence, 
looks down on its vast proportions, its broad base and long spurs run- 
ning out for miles in all directions, and gazes in silent wonder on its 
dark plumage of countless firs, will feel no fear that its " shadow will 
ever become less," or that in the present geological age it will meet the 
fate fancied by the poet, when he wrote the words : 

"Winds underground, or waters forcing way, 
Sidelong had pushed a mountain from his seat, 
Half sunk with all his pines." 

I fear, my dear sir, that I have made this letter much too long for 
your patience, and yet the vegetation and surrounding scenery of this 
mountain, peculiar and remarkable as it is, might well tempt me to say 
many things that I have omitted. I hope your interest in all that relates 
to natural science will find an apology for my having trespassed on your 
valuable time. I am very truly yours, &g., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[Inquiries are often made as to the heights of various mountains and local- 
ities in the western part of North Carolina. To meet such I append a 
letter of Professor Arnold Guyot. He, during three summers, continued his 
examination in that section of the State. After his third and last exploration 
he addressed a letter to the editor of the Asheville Neivs, which was published 
in its issue of July 18, I860.] 

GUYOT'S MEASUREMENT OF THE MOUNTAmS OF 
WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 

To THE Editor of the Asheville News: 

For the last ten years I have devoted the greater portion of my sum- 
mer excursions to the study of the geography of the Alleghany system, 
and to the measurement of the height of its mountains. After having 
ascertained the elevation of the most remarkable peaks of the White and 
Green Mountains of New Endand, and of the mountainous tract of the 
Adirondack in the State of New York, my attention was turned toward 
the beautiful mountain region of North Carolina, which was said to pos- 
sess the most elevated peaks of the whole Appalachian range. 

It is well known, however, to most of your readers, that when I began 
my investigations in the Black Mountain in July, 1856, accompa- 
nied by my friends. Rev. Dr. H. Green and Mr. E. Sandoz, no other 
measurements had been attempted in that region, or at least published, 
as far as I could learn, than those of the noble scientific pioneer in that 
field, the lamented Dr. E. Mitchell, of Chapel Hill University, and a 
partial measurement by Hon. T. L. Clingman, to whom also we are 
indebted for the first clear, accurate, and most graphic description of the 
Black Mountain. But the statements that Dr. Mitchell made, at dififer- 
ent times, of the results of his measurement failed to agree with each 
other, and owing to unfavorable circumstances and the want of proper 



( 139 ) V 

instruments, the precise location of the points measured, especially of 
the highest, had remained quite indefinite, even in the mind of Dr. Mitch- 
ell liimself, as 1 learned it from his own mouth in 1856. I was, there- 
fore, the more anxious to solve these questions by makin^^, first of all, a 
thorough examination of the Black Mountain. I did so. In my first 
visit in July, 185G, I had the pleasure of having Dr. Mitchell's company 
for two days, during that visit, and the second in 1858, which lasted one 
month each. I measured all the peaks of the Black Mountain ; includ- 
ing the Roan and Grandfather Mountains. In a third, in 1859, I ran 
once more over the whole chain of the Black Mc»untain to the north end. 
These several measurements of different years agree so closely with each 
other, that I feel a considerable degree of confidence in their accuracy. 
I was confirmed in this belief by the result of a series of levels, carried by 
Major J. C. Turner from the same point on the Swannanoa river from 
which I started myself to the highest point on the Black Mountain. Major 
Turner, who had my own figures in his hands, passed through four of my 
points, and found them to agree with his own elevations within one or 
two feet, and the highest about within a yard. So close an agreement 
by two different methods, and on so great an elevation, is seldom 
expected. 

My measurements have been made with excellent barometers, by 
Ernst, in Paris, and often and carefully compared with each other. The 
position of the points measured, has been determined and mapped down, 
by means of observations with the sextant and a small theodolite. The 
corresponding observations have been made by ray young friends, Mr. 
E. Sandoz, in 1856, and M. E. Grand Pierre, in '1858 and 1859, both 
faithful and well practiced observers. 

In my excursion last year, 1859, after having re-examined the Black 
Mountain, I devoted several weeks more to the measurement of the 
mountains in Haywood and Jackson counties, especially the various 
Balsam ranges and the great Smoky Mountains. 

Though, when studying a group of mountains, my attention is far 
from being confined to the measurement of the elevation of the highest 
points, which is a fact of less importance than the physical structure, 
the proportion of all parts and the relative situation of the various 
chains composing it, being aware of the interest which was felt among 
the people of the mountain region in knowing the comparative ele- 
vation of the Black Mountain and the great Smoky range, I devoted_^ 
a special care to that object. By a series of simultaneous observations 
for two days, taken every half hour at Asheville and at Waynesville, 
at the residence of Mr. J. P. Love and Colonel P. Love, whose 
guest I had then the pleasure to be, was found to be situated four 
hundred and sixty -six feet above Asheville court-house square; and 
assuming as I do, this last point to be twenty-two hundred and fifty 
feet, and not twenty-two hundred and sixty feet above the level of the 
sea, Colonel P. G. A. Love's house becomes twenty-seven hundred and 
sixteen feet above tide- water. By leveling, I found Waynesville at 
Welch's Hotel, and court-house sidewalk to be forty feet higher, viz : 
twenty-seven hundred and fifty-six feet above tide. By another series 
of two days of liourly observations, the house of Pobert Collins, Esq., 
at the foot of the great Smoky Mountain, was found to be exactly 



( 140 ) 

twent_y-five hundred feet above tide. From this hist point the highest 
peak distant about seven miles, was measured repeatedly in five differ- 
ent days, at all hours of the day. On my first visit to it, I encamped 
on its summit for twenty-six consecutive hours, the barometer being 
observed every half hour there and below at Mr. Collins' house, except- 
ing from 9 P. M. to 6 A. M. The result was an altitude of sixty-six 
hundred and sixty feet above the level of the sea. 

This height is considerably less than that found in 1858, by the 
observations of Hon. Thomas L. Clingman, Mr. Buckley and Professor 
Lecompt. 

The difference, however, does not arise from any error of observation, 
or calculation in that measurement. It will be observed that a great 
portion of it is due to the difference in the elevation of Waynesville, 
where one of the barometers was observed, assumed by the gentlemen 
just mentioned; the rest is owing to the influence of the heat of mid- 
day, during which the observations were made, an influence which is 
considerable in fair weather, and which needs to be counteracted by 
morning and evening observations, in order to get the true height. It 
is to avoid these disturbing influences that, in the Smoky range, as well 
as in the Black Mountain, I spent one night, at least, on every one of 
the principal peaks, tlie height of which I wished to determine with a 
particular care. 

I must be allowed to add a few words on the names used in the follow- 
ing list of heights. I have preserved for the peaks in the Black Moun- 
tain the' names that I gave them in my first report on my measure- 
ments, made at the Albany meeting of the American Association for 
the advancement of Science, in August, 1856, before I was aware of any 
other name having been attaelied to these particular points. As a 
matter of course, it is for the people of the surrounding country to 
choose. the one that they prefer. That one the geographer will adopt. 
What ought to be avoided by all means, in the interest of science and 
of all, is confusion. Only I ni&j, perhaps, be permitted to express it as 
my candid opinion (without wishing in the least to revive a controversy 
happily terminated) that if the honored name of Dr. Mitchell is taken 
from Mount Mitchell and transferred to the highest peak, it should not 
be on the ground that he first made known its true elevation, which he 
never did, nor himself ever claimed to have done; for the true height 
was not known before my measurement of 1856, and the coincidence 
made out quite recently jxiay be shown from abundant proofs, furnished 
by himself, to be a mere Jaccident. N^or should it be on the ground of 
his having first visited it, for, though after his death evidence, which 
made it probable that he did, he never could convince himself of it. 
Nor at last should it be because that peak was, as it is alleged, thus 
named long before, for I must declare, that neither in 1856, nor later, 
during the whole time I was on both sides of the mountain, did I hear 
of another Mount Mitchell than the one south of the highest, so long 
visited under that name, and that Dr. Mitchell, himself, before ascend- 
ing the Northern Peak, in 1856, as I gathered it from a conversation 
with him, believed to be the highest. Dr. Mitchell lias higher and 
better claims, which are universally and cheerfully acknowledged by all 
to be thus forever remembered in connection with the Black Mountain. 



(141) 

He was the first daring pioneer who made that iinperviahle Avilderness 
known to the scientific world, and proved the superior height of these 
mountain peaks above those of the Northern mountains, so long cited as 
culminating points of the Alleghany system. 

From these facts it is evident that the honorable Senator, to whom 
we are indebted for the first accurate knowledge of the geographical 
structure of that remarkable group, and whose name stands in the State 
map on the highest peak, could not possibly know when he first ascended 
it, that any one had visited or measured it before him, nor have any 
intention to do any injustice to Dr. Mitchell. As to the Smoky range and 
the mountains of Haywood county, wherever I do not find any name cur- 
rent among the peo[)le living about the mountain, I preserve the one 
attached to it by Mr. S. B. Buckley, in the publication of his meritorious 
measurements made in September, 1858. provided, however, that the 
points can l)e identified. Thougli these altitudes for the reasons assigned 
above will be found, I think, from fifty to eighty feet too high, yet they 
are very instructive approximations, for which we must be thankful to 
him. As to the highest group of the great Smoky Mountain, however, 
I must remark, that in the whole valley of the Tuckasege and Ocona- 
luftee, I heard of but one name applied to the highest point, and it is 
that of Mount Clingman, the greatest authority around the peak, Robert 
Collins, Esq., knows of no other. This is but justice, for Mr. Clingman 
has for a long time directed his attention to that point. A year before 
the measurement took place, he invited me to ascertain its elevation, 
which I would have done if circumstances had allowed. He was the 
leader of a party which made, in 1858, the first measurement, and 
was composed, besides himself, of Mr. S. B. Buckley and Dr. S. L. 
Love. He caused Mr. Collins to cut a path of six miles to the top, 
which enabled me to carry there the first horse, kindly loaned by Colonel 
Robert C A. Love, which was ever seen on these heights. It was 
would seem natural that the names of the three gentlemen of the party, 
and not that of one only, should be recalled by being applied to the 
three highest peaks which compose that group. The central or highest 
peak is therefore designated in the following list as Clingman's Dome, 
the south peak is next in height as Mount Buckley, the north peak 
as Mount Love. The name of Rev. Mr. Curtis, which was given b}' Mr. 
Buckley to Mount Love, is transferred to the western peak of Bullhead, 
the second in height to that group, the elevation of which was fi'rst 
ascertained by me in 1859. 

To investigate the wild and extensive mountain tract of I^orth Caro- 
lina is a long and arduous task, and I may be permitted to add an expen- 
sive one. For assuming it spontaneously and unaided I was prompted 
by no other motive than the desire of adding something to the knowledge 
of the scientific world, and to my own on the most interesting and most 
unknown portion of the great Alleghany range. It was, therefore, very 
gratifying to find among the many intelligent citizens of Western North 
Carolina, a lively interest in my enterprise, and a constant readiness in 
helping me, by giving in the most obliging manner all the information 
they could. It is a pleasure for me to return here, to all, my sincere 
thanks. To Hon. T. L. Clingman I am particularly indebted for much 
important information on the Black Mountain; to Mr, Blackstocks, of 



( 142 ) 

Stocksville, for the communication of his survey of the same; to Dr. 
Hardy, of Asheville, for many kind services; to Professor W. C. Kerr, 
Davidson Colleo^e, and his brother, for barometrical observations; to 
James R. Love, Esq., and his son. Col. Robt. G, Love, and Dr. S. L, 
Love, whose cordial hospitality 1 long enjoyed with my companions, and 
who rendered us all kinds of assistance, I am sincerely grateful; to Mr, W. 
A. Benners, of Waynesville, I am indebted for a long series of excellent 
^Barometrical observations tliat he made at my request. The aid of MrT 
Jesse Stepp, my faithful guide in the Black Mountain, was to me inval- 
uable; so was that of Mr. Brown, of Waynesville, for the mountain of 
Pigeon Valley, and quite particnU\rly that of my excellent friend, Robt. 
Collins, Esq., ot Oconaluftee Valley, for the Smoky Mountains. Mr, 
Collins placed himself and his sons at my disposal for more than a 
month and without his intelligent aid I scarcely conld have succeeded, as 
I did, in exploring to my satisfaction that must wild and difficult portion 
of the mountains of ISTorth Carolina. 

The following are the principal points, the altitude of which has been 
ascertained. The figures all refer to the ground of the places measured 
or to the waters in the rivers. The reduction to the level of the sea was 
derived from the levels of tiie Charleston and Cincinnati Railroad survey, 
the junction of Flat creek and Swannanoa river being assumed to be 
2,250 feet above the level of the sea, and the ground at Asheville court- 
house likewise 2,250 feet above the ocean, 

"^ VALLEY OF THE SWANNANOA. 

Eng. ft. above sea. 

Junction of Flat Creek with Swannanoa River 2,250 

Joseph Stepp's house 2,368 

Burnett's house , 2,423 

Lower Mountain house — Jesse Stepp's floor of piazza 2,770 

W. Patton's cabins end of carriage road 3,2'i4 

Resting Place brook behind last log cabin 3,955 

Upper Mountain house 5,246 

Ascending to Toe River Gap — passage main branch above Stepp's 3,902 

IN THE BLUE RIDGE, 

Toe River Gap between Potato Top and High Pinnacle 5,188 

High Pinnacle of Blue Ridge ! 5,701 

Rocky Knob's south peak 5,306 

Big Spring on Rocky Knob 5,080 

Grey Beard 5,448 

CRAGGY CHAIN, 

Big Craggy , 6,090 

Bull's Head 5,935 

Craggy Pinnacle 5,945 

BLACK MOUNTAIN MAIN CHAIN. 

Potato Top 6,393 

Mt. Mitchell 6,582 

Mt. Gibbs 6,591 

Stepp's Gap — the cabin 6,103 



(143) 

Eng. ft. above sea. 

Mt. Hallback (or Sngarloaf) 6,403 

Black Dome (or Mitcheirs High peak, or Clingman of State maps, 6,707 

Dome Gap '. 6,352 

Balsam Cone (Guyot of State maps) 6,671 

Hairy Bear 6,610 

Bear Gap 6,234 

Black Brother (Sandoz of State maps) 6,619 

Cattail Peak 6,611 

Rocky Tail Gap 6,382 

Dear Mt. North Point 6,233 

Long Ridge South Point , 6,208 

Middle Point 6,259 

North Point 6,248 

Bowlen's Pyramid— North End 6,348 

NORTHWESTERN CHAIN. 

Blackstock's Knob 6,380 

Yeates' Knob 5,975 

CANEY RIVER VALLEY. 

Green Ponds at T. Wilson's highest house, 3,222 

T. Wilson's new house 3,110 

Wheeler's — opposite Big Ivy Gap , . ............ 2,943 

Cattail F'ork — ^junction with Caney River 2,873 

Sandofor Gap, or Low Gap — summit of road 3,176 

Burnsville — Court-house square 2,840 

Green Mountain near Burnsville, highest point 4,340 

GROUP OF THE ROAN MOUNTAIN. 

Summit of the road from Burnsville to Toe River 3,139 

Toe River Ford on the road from Burnsville to Roan Mountain. . 2,131 

Rally's Farm 2,379 

Brigg's House, foot of the Roan Mountain — valley of Little Rock 

Creek _ .....'..... 2,757 

Yellow Spot, above Brigg's 5,158 

Little Yellow Mount— highest 5,196 

The Cold Spring — summit of Roan 6,132 

Grassy Ridge Ball — northeast continuation of Roan Mountain . . . 6,230 

Roan "High Bluff 6,296 

Roan High Knob >. 6,306 

FROM BURNSVILLE TO GRANDFATHER MOUMTAIN. 

Sotith Toe River Ford 2,532 

Toe River Ford, near Autrey's 2,547 

North Toe River Ford, below Childsville 2,652 

Blue Ridge— head of Brusliy Creek 3,425 

Linville River Ford, below head of Brushy Creek, 3,297 

Linville River, at Piercy's 3,607 

Headwaters of Linville and Watauga River, foot of Grandfather 

Mountain 4,100 

Grandfather Mountain summit 5,897 



(144) 

Eng. ft. above sea, 

Watano^a River at ShulFs Mill-pond, ... 2,917 

Tajlorsville, Tennessee, .... 2,395 

Wiiitetops, Virginia, . , 5,530 

FROM BURNSVILLE TO THE BALD MOUNTAIN OBSERVATIONS MADE BY PROFES- 
SOR W. C. KERR, OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE COMPUTED BY ME. 

Sampson's Gap, 4,130 

Egvpt Cove at Proffit's 3,320 

Wolf's Camp Gap 4,359 

Bald Mountain summit 5,550 

VALLEY OF THE BIG IVY CREEK, 

Dillingham's house below Yeates Knob, or Big Butte, 2,568 

Junction of the three forks, 2,276 

Solomon Carter's house, 2,215 

Stocksville at Black Stock's 2,216 

Mouth of Iv}'^ River, by railroad surve}^ 1,684 

FROM ASHi:VILLE TO MOUNT PISGAH. 

Asheville Court-house 2,250 

Sulphur Springs — the Spring 2,092 

Hominy Cove at Solomon Davies' . 2,542 

Little West Pisgah, 4,724 

Great Pisgah 5,757 

BIG PIGEON VALLEY. 

Forks of Pigeon, at Colonel Cathey's 2,701 

East Fork of Pigeon, at Captain T. Lenoir's, 2,855 

Waynesville Court-house, 3,756 

Sulphur Spring, Richland Valley at James li. G. Love's 2,716 

Mr. Hill's farm on Crab Tree Creek 2,714 

Crab Tree Creek below Hill's 2,524 

Cold Mountain 6,063 

CHAIN OF THE RICHLAND BALSAM. 

Richland, between Richland Creek and the West Fork of Pigeon 

Creek and at E. Medford's 2,938 

E. Medford's farm, foot of Lickston's Mountain, 3,000 

Lickston Mountain, 6,707 

Deep Pigeon Gap, 4,907 

Cold Spring Mountain, 5,915 

Double Spring Mountain 6,380 

Richland Balsam or Caney Fork Balsam Divide 6,425 

Chimney Top 6,234 

Spruce Ridge Top, 6,076 

Lone Balsam 5,898 

Old Bald, 5,786 

CHAIN OF WESTENEr's BALD. 

Westener Bald— North Peak 5,414 

Pinnacle 5,692 



( 145 ) 

GREAT MIDDLE CHAIN OF BALSAM MOUNTAINS BETWEEN SCOTt's CREEK AND 

LOW CREEK, 

Eng. ft. above sea. 

Enos Plott's farm — north foot of chain 3,002 

Old Field Mountain 5,100 

Huckelberry Knob 5,484 

Enos Plott's Balsam — tirst Balsam, north end. 6,097 

Jones' Balsam — north point 6,223 

South end 6,055 

Rock Stand Knob 6,002 

Brother Plott 6,246 

Amos Plott's Balsam, or Great Divide 6,278 

Rocky Face ..... 6,031 

White Rock Ridge 5,528 

Black Rock 5,815 

Panther Knob 5,359 

Perry Knob 5,026 

VALLEY OF SCOTt's CREEK. 

Love's sawmill 2,911 

Maclure's farm 3,285 

Road gap, head of Scott's Creek 3,357 

John Brown's farm 3,049 

Bryson's farm 2,173 

Joiin Love's farm 2,226 

Webster Court House 2,203 

VALLEY OF TUCKASEGE AND TRIBUTARIES. 

Tuckasege River mill, below Webster, near the road to Qualla- 

town 2,004 

Junction of Savannah Creek 2,001 

Junction of Scott's Creek 1,977 

Quallatown Main Store 1,979 

Soco River, Ford to Oconaluftee 1,990 

Soco Gap — road summit 4,341 

Amos Plott's farm on Pigeon 3,084 

Oconaluftee River, junction Bradley fork 2,203 

Robt. Collin's highest house 2,500 

Junction of Raven's and Straight fork 2,476 

Junction of Bunch's Creek 2,379 

CHAIN OF THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN FROM NORTHEAST TO SOUTHWEST 
FROM THE BOUND OF HAYWOOD COUNTY TO THE GAP OF LFFIXE TENNESSEE. 

The Pillar, head of Straight fork of Oconaluftee River 6,255 

Thermometer Knob 6,157 

Raven's Knob 6,230 

Tricornor Knob 6,188 

Mt. Guyot, (so named by Mr. Buckley in common) 6,636 

Mt. Henry 6,373 

Mt. Alexander 6,447 

South Peak 6,299 

19 



( 146 ) 

Eng. ft. above sea. 

The True Brother, highest or central peak 5,907 

Thunder Knob 5,682 

Laurel Peak 5,922 

Reinhardt Gap 5,220 

Top of Richland Ridge 5,492 

Indian Gap •: 5,317 

Peck's Peak 6,232 

Mt. Ocoana 6,135 

Righthand or New Gap 5,096 

Mt, Mingus 5,694 

GROUP OF BULLHEAD, TENNESSEE. 

Central Peak, or Mt. Lecompte 6,612 

West Peak, or Mt. Curtis 6,568 

North Peak, or Mt. Stafford 6,535 

Cross Knob 5,921 

Neigiibor 5,771 

Master Knob 6^013 

Tomahawk Gap 5,450 

Alum Cave 4,971 

Alum Cave Creek, junction with Little Pigeon River 3,848 

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN MAIN CHAIN. 

Road Gap 5,271 

Mt. Collins 6,188 

Collins' Gap 5,720 

Mt. Love 6,443 

Clingman's Dome, 6,660 

Mt. Buckley 6,599 

Chimney Knob 5,588 

Big Stone Mountain 5,614 

Big Cherry Gap 4,838 

Corner Knob 5,246 

Forney Ridge Peak 5,087 

Snaky Mt.. ! 5,195 

Thunderhead Mt 5,520 

Eagletop 5,433 

Spence Cabin 4,910 

Turkey Knob 4,740 

Opossum Gap 3,840 

North Bald 4,711 

The Great Bald's central peak 4,922 

South Peak 4,708 

Tennessee River at Hardin's .... 899 

Hill House Mt., summit road to Montvale Springs 2,452 

Montvale Springs, Tennessee 1,293 

These measurejnents sufficiently indicate the grand traits of structure 
of that loftiest portion of the Appalachian system. It may be seen that 
the Roan and Grandfather Mountains are the two great pillars on both 
sides of the Northgate to the higher mountain region of North Carolina, 



1 147 ) 

which entered between the two chains of the Blue Eidge on the east 
and the Iron and Smoky and Unaka Mountains on the west. That gate 
is ahnost closed by the Big Yellow Mountain. The group of the Black 
Mountain rises nearly isolated on one side in the interval between the 
two chains, touching by a corner the high Pinacle, and overtowering all 
the neighboring chains by a thousand feet. In the large and compara- 
tively deep basin of the French Broad Valley, the Blue Ridge is con- 
siderably depressed, while the Western chains preserves its increasing 
height. Beyond the French Broad rises the most massive cluster of 
highlands, and of mountain chains. Here the chain of the Great Smoky 
Mountain which extends from the deep cut of the French Broad at 
Paint Bock, to that, not less remarkable of the Little Tennessee, is the 
master chain of that region of the whole Alleghany system. Though 
its highest summits are a few feet below the highest peaks of the Black 
Mountain, it presents on that extent of sixty-five miles a continuous series 
of high peaks, and an average elevation not to be found in any other dis- 
trict,"and which give to it a greater importance in the geographical struc 
ture of that vast system of mountains. The gaps or depressions never fall 
below five thousand feet except towards the southwest and beyond 
Forney Ridge, and the number of peaks, the altitude of which exceed 
six thousand feet, is indeed very large. On the opposite side to the 
southeast, the Blue Ridge also oifers its most /massive forms and reaches 
its greatest elevation on the compact cluster of mountains which fill the 
southern portion of Haywood and Jackson counties. Mount Hardy in 
the Blue Ridge, which according to Mr. Buckley, rises to sixty-two hun- 
dred and fifty-seven feet, though this elevation may be found too great, 
seems to be the culminating ])oint of the Blue Ridge. 

Moreover the interior between the Smoky Mountain and the Blue 
Ridge is filled with chains which off'er peaks higher still than the latter. 
Amos Plott's Balsam in the midst of the great Balsam chain measures 
sixty-two hundred and seventy-eight feet ; Richland, or Canej Fork 
Balsam, sixty-four hundred and twenty-five feet. Considering, there- 
fore, these great features of physical structure, and the considerable ele- 
vation of the valleys which form the base of these high chains, we may 
say that this vast cluster of highlands between the French Broad and the 
Tuckasege rivers, is the culminating region of the great Appalachian 
system. As I intend this summer to visit the high group of mountains 
of the Cataluchee and those of south of Haywood county, as well as the 
Nantihala and others to the boundary of Georgia, I shall be happy to 
give you, for those who may be interested in these researches, the results 
of my further investigations. 

I remain, very truly yours, 

' ARNOLD GUYOT, 

Professor of Geology and Physical Oeografhy, Princeton College, N. J. 



(H8) 

[Tliis speech and tlie one following it are presented to indicate the political 
condition of the country, with respect to party feelings and issues. Mr. Clay, 
from his youth, had been a leader of the Jeffei'sonian Republican party, and 
hence in piinciple did not differ essentially from General Jackson, likewise 
brought up in that school. Even on the tariff question, which seemed to be 
the chief nuxterial issue that affected the country, these two leaders did not 
differ much, both of them being merely in favor of protecting manufacturing 
establishments during their infancy, and until they had acquired strength 
sufficient to enable them to compete with the older establishments. Among 
the followers of each of them were both tariff" and free trade men. 

Hence, in party debates it was rather difficult to present any well marked 
line of division as to principles. The personal qualities of individuals, there- 
fore, became more important, and that may be regarded i-ather as an age of 
political hero worship. The views of Mr. Clay and of General Jackson, 
therefore, seemed to constitute what were })opularly regarded as the piin- 
ciples of the Whig and Democratic parties.] 

SPEECH 

ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WHIG AND DEMOCRATIC PAR- 
TIES, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
MARCH 1, 1844. 

Mr. Speaker: It is not my purpose to debate tiie bill now under 
consideration. The gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Duncan,) ¥/ho intro- 
duced it, thought proper to devote very little of his long speech to its. 
merits. On the contrary, he declared that he did not feel capable of 
enlightening this House on any subject; that he had never, heretofore, 
spoken with that view; and that he was then about to make a speech 
for Buncombe. 

As I am a citizen of that county, and have the honor of representing 
it on this floor, and as it has been my practice heretofore to reply to 
such individuals of his party as delivered political harangues to the 
citizens of my county. I regard it as proper for me to notice his effort 
of yesterday. I will suggest to the gentleman, however, for the benefit 
of any future exhibitions of this sort which he may be inclined to 
make, that he has utterly underrated the sagacity and mistaken the 
taste of my constituents. They are not quite gullible enough to 
swallow any portion of his doctrine, however well adapted it may 
be to the softer heads and coarser appetites of many of his own sup- 
porters. 

During the two hours wliich, with the aid of his friends, the gentle- 
man was able to obtain, he discussed the expenditures of government, 
Democracy and coon skins — spoke of toryism, tariff, proscription, and 
the peace party — denounced the bank, blue light federalism, and ban- 
ners generally — condemned abolitionism, cider and the land distribu- 
tion; he manifested much feeling against the Clay party and Whig 
songs, and went at large into the merits of bribery, frauds, the Hartford 
Convention, Van Burenismand Humbuggery; he also boasted largely 
of his knowledge of Greek, treated us to a lecture on the anatomy of 
the coon, and exhibited drawings of its entrails, which he declared he 



(149) 

intended to have engraved and published as a part of his speech. In 
addition to these matters, he said there were other things which he had 
not then time to go into, but which he intended to write out and cir- 
culate. That these topics have any relation to the bill of the gentle- 
man, or to any bill which will probabl}- ever be presented to this 
House, will not be pretended by anybody. But it was plain, Mr. 
Speaker, not only from the declarations of the gentleman himself, but 
from what we witnessed on this floor and from intimations in other 
Cjuarters, that he was making a regular-built electioneering effort for 
distribution over the country. The fact, well known to everybody'- 
here, that he has been selected on this occasion by his party, as was 
their former custom, to promulgate their political doctrines, gives con- 
sequence to his effort of yesterday, and furnishes me a full apology for 
a reply. And if I should descend to things wdiich seem trivial in 
themselves, or unwortliy of the dignity of this House, I hope it will be 
borne in mind that whatever a great party adopts as its creed, is of 
consequence, however trifling or contemptible it may be in itself. 
Whatever our opponents regard as fitting to influence even the least 
enlightened part of the community, is worthy of examination. 

The gentleman declared, at the outset of his remarks, that he should 
not trouble himself with details, but that he should deal in toAoIesale 
fali<ehoofU. The latter part of this declaration he repeated with great 
emphasis. As but half the time will be allowed me that was extended 
to him, 1, too, will be prevented from going into details; but I design 
to deal only in general facts. 

On the subject of the expenditures of the government, it will not be 
necessary for me to sa}' many words. The gentleman from Ohio 
alleged that the expenses of the present adminii-tration greatly exceeded 
those of Mr. Van Buren's; but as he did not give us the data on which 
he based his calculations, I presume we are to take it as one of his 
wholesale declOiYaXious. Taking the reports made by Mr. Van Buren's 
own officers as true, the total expenditures of his four years, indepen- 
dent of payments on account of public debt and trust funds, cannot be 
made less than the sura of $112,000,000. But he says that many items 
of this expenditure were extraordinary, and refers particularly to the 
Florida war and some other things. Nothing, surely, Mr. Speaker, 
could be more extraordinary than some of those expenditures. For 
example: the sending from the forests of Florida to the city of New 
Orleans for wood, so as to make it cost $20 per cord ; the manner in 
which steamboats were employed, and many other items. When these 
matters were brought to the attention of the nation, in the canvass of 
1840, the gentleman and his political friends, so far from condemning 
any of these expenditures, defended and justified them all. Sir, as they 
thought them right then, we are authorized in coming to the conclu- 
sion, that if they should get into power again, we should have a repe- 
tition of these extraordinar}' ex])enditures. 

To show conclusively the improvidence and extravagance of the late 
administration, let me call your attention to some other facts. When 
Mr. Van Buren came into power, he found in the Treasury, including 
the fourth installment which ought to have been distributed among 



(150) 

the States, the large sum of $17,109,473! There also came into the 
Treasur}^ during his term, from the sale of the United States Bank 
stock and other sources than the ordinary revenue, the sum of $9,124,- 
747 ! And he left a debt due, by outstanding Treasury notes, of 
$5,648,512 ! It thus appears that he not only expended all the reve- 
nues arising from the existing tariff, and from the sales of the public 
lands, but, in addition thereto, he expended the whole of the above 
large sum, viz: $31,882,732! for he did not leave a single million in 
the Treasury. If he expended no more than was necessary, then he 
and his party were highly culpable ; because they neglected to provide 
means to sustain the government, without depriving the States of the 
fourth installment, which was due to them under the existing law, and 
without leaving the government in debt. But, if the existing laws 
were sufficient to provide the government with the means of paying 
its current expenses, then it is clear that he expended $31,882,732 too 
much. 

Gentlemen cannot escape one or the other of these conclusions. But 
to show still more strongly the gross mismanagement as well as the 
reckless extravagance of that administration, let me bring to the atten- 
tion of the House another fact. On the 4th of March, 1841, when Mr. 
Van Buren left the administration of the government, there were, as 
appears from House Document, No. 281 : 

Specific undrawn appropriations of all kinds - - $27,144,721 30 
Indefinite appropriations drawn between the 4th of 

March and 31st of December, 1841, - - - 1,771,267 46 
Treasury notes outstanding on the 4th of March, 1841, $ 5,648,512 00 
There were, besides other liabilities then existing, 
arising out of Indian treaties, balances due militia, 
for navy pension fund, post office debt, taking the 
census, printing, Greenough's statue, and various 
other small items, enumerated in Document 62 and 
acts of last Congress, and Document 293, which, 
together, make the sum of 3,518,835 00 



Adding all these, we have the total liabilities thrown 

upon the Whigs, when they came into power, to be 38,065,378 76 



And now let us see what means existed to meet this heavy liability. 
The totol amount of revenue which came in that year from customs, 
land sales, bonds of the United States Bank, and all other sources, 
after deducting the sum produced by the Whig tariff on luxuries, and 
the $2,428,247 expended before the 4lh of March by the rejected 
administration, amounted to $13,000,000. Add to this the cash on 
hand in the Treasury, $862,055, and we have the sum of $13,862,055, 
as the whole amount which arose from all the sources provided by 
that administration. 

How, then, stands the account? The administration of Mr. Van 
Buren left the government liable for the sum of $38,065,378 in that 
year, and all the means provided to pay it amounted to but 
$13,862,055, which, subtracted from the liabilities, leaves an excess of 



(151) 

the latter of $24,203,323. This large sura of twenty-four millions can 
be looked upon in no other light than a debt left by Mr. Van Buren's 
administration. Let us noic see how the account stands. Mr. Van 
Buren, when he came into power had, as above stated, a surplus of 
$26,234,220. He went out, having expended this, leaving the gov- 
ernment involved, above its means of paying, for the sum of 
$24,203,323. Putting them together, the surplus spent and the debt 
left, we have the vast sum of $50,437,543. We are, therefore, brought 
to the startling conclusion, that if Mr. Van Buren had come into office 
as most of the Presidents did, w'ithout any surplus on hand, he would 
have left the government fifty millions in debt. Whether gentlemen 
attribute this to his extravagance, or simply to his bad management 
in providing means for carrying on the government, is not at all 
material. They must come to one of these conclusions, and either is 
decisive against his capacity to administer the government of the 
country. 

Should the last half of tlie expenditures of this year be equal to the 
first, the total expenses of the present administration for its four years 
will not reach $85,000,000. This, subtracted from the aggregate 
expenditures of Mr. Van Buren's four years, as above stated, leaves 
the sum of more than tw^enty-seven millions, showing thereby that by 
ejecting him from office this immense sum has been saved to the 
country in four years. 

With respect, however, to this administration, I will say that the 
Whigs are not responsible for it generally, and that I feel under no 
obligation to defend it. When Mr. Tyler proved himself false to the 
Whig party, and abandoned its principles, we made a full surrender 
of him to our adversaries. But our conveyance was accompanied by 
no warranty either of title or soundness. The Democracy took him 
at their own risk. They cannot hold us responsible, because our 
assignment was without recourse, and without consideration. It is 
unkind in the gentleman from Ohio now^ to assail Mr. Tyler. He and 
his friends might have done so with great propriety. They might 
have imitated the magnanimity of Julius Cresar, who, if he loved the 
treason, despised tbe traitor. But they did not do so; on the contrary, 
they courted his alliance; and, now, after having seduced, embraced, 
and made use of him — having disgraced him in the estima- 
tion of all the world — finding that he is soon to lose his official station, 
and that he can no longer be turned to account, they are endeavoring 
to expel him from the fold of the Democratic party, and turn him 
adritt in the world, friendless and alone, to depend on its cold chari- 
ties. But he is unwilling to be thus unceremoniously expelled. He 
insists, through his official organs, that, inasmuch as he has done 
more to defeat the Whig measures than any one else, and thereby 
rendered the greatest service to the Democratic party, he ought, in all 
fairness, to receive the nomination of their convention, affirms that 
Mr. Van Buren has no chance to beat Mr. Clay, and claims to be the 
only man in their ranks capable of succeeding. In this, perhaps, 
exists the secret cause of the attack of the member from Ohio. He 
designs, b}^ a sudden thrust, to remove a rival from the path of his 



(152) 

favorite. I submit it to him, in all candor, to decide whether it is not 
ungenerous and ungrateful in him thus to assail his ally. He ought 
not to lift his hand against his brother. 

Let us now, Mr. Speaker, proceed to inquire what are the principles of 
the present self-styled " Democratic party," about which the gentleman 
from Ohio has talked so much ? It will be found on examination, 
that this party is governed by seven {principles — as John Randolph is 
reported to have said of Thomas Ritchie — the five loaves and the 
two fishes. Or, in the language of John C. Calhoun, late a distin- 
guished leader of this party, remarkable for his powers of generaliza- 
tion and condensation, and who was, thereby, enabled to analyse, 
simplify, and reduce to a single element these various principles, it 
is the "spoils party, held together by the cohesive attraction of public 
plunder!" 

I shall endeavor to show, Mr. Speaker, in all the candor and sincer- 
ity on my part, that no injustice is done to the party by this defini- 
tion of its principles. On the contrary, it is my deliberate, well set- 
tled, solemn conviction that the leaders of the party are held together 
by no other bond whatever. If an individual will only vote for them; 
if he will give them his influence in carrying elections, and promoting 
them to office, he will be considered a good Democrat, no matter how 
opposite his opinions on all questions of public policy may be to those 
which they happen to be professing at that time. I intend this remark 
of course only to apply to the politicians ; for I am well aware that 
the great mass of the party in the country are honest and patriotic, 
and that they have been merely deceived by the professions of Democ- 
racy and love for the interest of the people, made by their leaders. 

Without traveling out of the ground occupied by the gentleman 
from Ohio, I expect to be able to establish the truth of my position 
that his party is united only upon the principle above stated. The 
question which is likely to occupy more of our time during the pres- 
ent session than any other, is the tariff"; and how does the party stand 
on that? Martin Van Buren, their generally acknowledged leader, 
voted not only for the tariff of 1824, but he also voted for that of 1828, 
(the highest tariff^ which ever existed in the country,) and which, 
because of its very excess, was condemned by Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, 
and many other Whigs. Mr. Senator Wright, the confidential friend 
of Van Buren always, and the pressent Congressional leader of the 
part}^ on all such questions, not only likewise voted for that same 
extravagant tariff" of 1828, but he was mainly instrumental in carry- 
ing it through. He even voted for the Whig tariff" of 1842, against 
which such an outcry is now raised ; and so did Mr. Senator Buchanan, 
another great Democratic leader, and but lately one of their candidates 
for the Presidency. I need not, however, multiply instances of this 
sort, but will ask if the whole party are united on tariff principles 
with these prominent individuals? Not at all, sir. When you look 
to the Southern section of the Union, you find among the Democrats, 
Free Trade men and Nullifiers, who are utterly hostile to all tariffs, 
denounce them as unconstitutional, systems only of fraud and plunder, 
and even, in some instances, are willing to dissolve the Union to get rid 



(153) 

of them. Do these individuals complain of and denounce their Demo- 
cratic allies of the North for voting for these high tariffs? No, sir. 
The}^ embrace them most lovingly, stand shoulder to shoulder with 
them, like Siamese twins, and keep up a common struggle for political 
power. But they do denounce Mr. Clay and the Whigs because they 
are in favor of a moderate, steady tariff. The party is thus divided 
into two sections, which profess opposite principles, with a view of 
increasing thereby its political strength. In the South there is much 
opposition to the tariff, and on that account the Southern Democrats 
denounce it with great vehemence, with the expectation of chiming 
in with the prevalent feeling of the people there, and thus acquiring 
popularity for their party ; while at the North, where the tariff 
policy is favored, their Democratic allies are warmly in favor of it, 
with a view of carrying the elections in that quarter. By thus manoeu- 
vring the}^ expect that each wing will be able to bring a larger capi- 
tal to the common stock, to enable them to get control of the offices 
and money of the country. The Whigs, on the contrary, being gov- 
erned by principle, find that their representative, Mr. Clay, is 
denounced at the South as being too strongh^ in favor of the tariff, 
while at the North he is charged with not going far enough in support 
of the protective policy. Mr. Van Buren himself is a fitting represen- 
tative of his party. While he votes for high tariffs, makes sheep speeches 
at the North, and whites letters to Indiana in favor of the protective 
policy, to Virginia he writes a letter strongly denouncing it. Do gen- 
tlemen intend to persevere in this system of deception ? Or do they 
hope to be able to cheat the country longer by such barefaced double 
dealing? Why do they not show us on this floor what they are for? They 
know what the Whig tariff is, and v/hy do they not let us see theirs? 
The Committee of Ways and Means have had the subject under con- 
sideration some three months, and why have we not had a report ? 
What are you afraid of, sir? Is it that 3'ou cannot unite your party 
on any bill? You have a majority of nearly two to one on this floor ; 
can you not bring_ them up to the mark? Show us your hand, and 
let the country know what you are for. Further concealment or shuf- 
fling is no longer practicable. 

You know that we Whigs are for a tariff". [What sort of a tariff 
are you for? said Mr. Payne.] I will endeavor, Mr. Speaker, to tell 
the gentleman from Alabama what sort of a tariff I am for, and what 
I understand the Whig party to be in favor of. We are in favor of 
such a tariff as will produce all the revenue necessary to the support 
of the government, economically administered, without the money 
arising from the sales of the public lands. This latter fund we desire 
to see distributed among the States, to enable those States that are 
indebted to pay back to their creditors what they have borrowed, to 
remove the cloud which rests on the honor of some of them, and place 
American credit where it used to stand, and to furnish the States not 
indebted with the means of diffusing the benefits of education among 
every class of their citizens, so that our voters hereafter may under- 
stand their rights as inhabitants of this free Republic, and no longer 
be the victims of the arts of demagogues. And, in raising a revenue 
20 



(154) 

by means of duties, we are not for adopting them on the principles of 
the horizontal tariff, for which a portion of the gentleman's party 
were voting early in the session. That is a system so absurd that it 
has not yet been adopted by any nation, and probably never will exist 
on the earth, however firm may be its resting place in the imagina- 
tions of some of its votaries. 

Still less are we inclined to support sjich a tariff as that recom- 
mended in the last resolution offered, which received the support of 
the majority of the Democratic party on this floor, and which was so 
near being adopted, viz; adjusting the duties with reference to revenue 
alone, and making discriminations with that view only. In other 
words, so adjusting the duties as to raise the largest sum on each 
article: 

That system, if carried out, would throw its burdens mainly on the 
necessaries of life, because they would come in at any price. Salt, for 
example, being an article of prime necessity, must be procured by 
everybody, no matter what might be its price; and the heaviest duty 
would therefore be imposed on it under this principle, so as to get the 
greatest amount of revenue; while jewelry, silks, and wines, being 
mere luxuries, which nobody is obliged to have, would be excluded 
by a high duty, and therefore must be admitted with a moderate 
one only. We are in favor of no such system as this; but we do advo- 
cate such a discrimination as, while it is so modified as not to be bur- 
densome to any class of the community, may afford incidental pro- 
tection to our manufacturers and artizans, to sustain our own industry 
against the oppressive regulations of others, and countervail, as far as 
practicable, the hostile restrictions of foreign nations. This last was 
a favorite principle of General Jackson, and I commend it to the atten- 
tion of gentlemen on the other side. It was also a doctrine of Mr. 
Jefferson; in fact, he went so far at one time as to express the opinion, 
that we ought to imitate the Chinese, make everything we need at 
home, and have as little as possible to do with other nations. I may 
add, sir, that there has not been a single President, from Washington 
down to the present incumbent of the executive chair, inclusive, who 
has not sanctioned discrimination on these principles. 

It is time, Mr. Speaker, that we should take a common sense prac- 
tical view of this question. We have had theory and parade enough 
on it. 

I tell gentlemen that I am not at present inclined to support any 
tariff bill which they are likely to bring forward at this session. In 
making this declaration, I speak only for myself. The tariff of 1842, 
which is now in operation, may have defects, for what I know. Some 
of the duties may be too high, and others too low. But, sir, it has 
thus far disappointed all the predictions of its enemies. They told us 
that the duties were so high that they would be prohibitory; that we 
should get no revenue under it, and therefore be obliged to resort to 
direct taxation to support the government. But facts, as daily de- 
veloped, directly refute this prediction. The revenue under it has 
been rapidly increasing; and if it should continue for the balance of 
the year as it has been coming in for the last three months, it would 



(155) 

amount to some fifty millions of dollars. Though I do not, of course, 
anticipate, in feet, that amount, yet I am quite sure that if the present 
tarifll were permitted to remain undisturbed, it would not only afford 
us all the means necessary to support the government, but enable us, 
in a short time, to pay off the whole of our national debt. This favor- 
able state of our finances has been produced thus far without any 
practical injury having resulted to any section of the country. Not 
only cotton, but all of our other productions, command a better price 
than they did before the passage of the tarifli"; while foreign articles, 
which we import and consume, are generally cheaper, I believe I 
might say invariably so. But even if it were otherwise, I would be 
willing, as an individual, and I know my constituents are patriotic 
enough to feel willing too, to submit to a temporary inconvenience for 
the sake of seeing this government once more free from the 'debt left 
by Mr. Van Buren, and able to support itself without borrowing, or 
resorting to the land money, so that the latter fund might be distributed 
among the States. We might thereby relieve the National and State 
governments from embarrassment, and place American character and 
credit on their former basis. But when these results are about to be 
produced by a tariff that is actually conferring benefits instead of 
burdens on the community, is it not something worse than folly to 
repeal it? 

lb illustrate my view still further, Mr. Speaker, allow me to put a 
case to the member from Ohio, (Mr. Duncan) which I have no doubt 
he will understand and feel the force of. From the manner in which 
he lectured us on the entrails of the coon, I take it that he is a doctor. 
Is it not so? [Mr. Duncan was understood to nod an assent.] Then, 
suppose he had been practicing on an individual for four years, and 
that under his administration of medicines the disorder of the patient 
had increased daily; that he had become more and more feeble, until 
his dissolution seemed at hand. When thus on the brink of the grave, 
he is advised to change his physician; he does so, and at once begins 
to recover, regains his strength and spirits, and is able to return to his 
former business. The gentleman then meets him, and tells him that 
he is about to be ruined; that the medicines he has been taking are 
too strong, have cured him too suddenly, and thereby destroyed his 
constitution; and recommends him to return to his prescription. 
Would the gentleman expect the patient to follow his advice? He 
does not think proper to answer my question. I will answer it, by 
telling him that I am not willing to trust him and his party, who 
brought the country into such difficulty. We expect to elect Mr. Clay, 
and get into power again in some twelve months ; and if, after a trial 
till then, we find the tariff needs alteration, those who originally made 
it can modify it. 

Having thus, Mr. Speaker, shown that the several fragments of the 
Democratic party have no common principles in relation to the tariff, 
I shall proceed still further to support my original position, that they 
are kept together solely by the love of office, by adverting to another 
question which has occupied more of our time than any other during 
the present session, viz: abolition, or the proper mode of treating 



( 156 ) 

abolition petitions. The gentleman declared that the Whigs were 
Abolitionists, but he did not think it worth while, it seems, to oHer 
any proof on the point, contenting himself with making a wholesale 
charge. [Mr. Duncan here rose to explain.] Mr. Speaker, I have 
but a single hour to answer the gentleman's two hour's speech, and I 
cannot consent to give up any part of it to explanations. The gen- 
tleman's own course affords a fair illustration of that of his party on 
this c[uestion. At the beginning of the session, when the famous 21st 
rule was under consideration for the first time, he dodged the vote on 
it. A good deal having been said in the papers about his so doing, he 
came in a few weeks afterwards, and made a long speech against the 
rule, showing that it was unconstitutional, inexpedient, and utterly 
mischievous. On Tuesday of last week, however, when the House 
was voting on it, he dodged the question again; but on the next day, 
upon the last vote taken, he came in and voted in favor of the rule. 
He has thus, during the present session, been once against the rule, 
once in favor of it, and twice has he dodged the vote. 

When we look abroad over the country, Mr. Speaker, how does his 
party stand on this question ? Why, he knows very well that, even in 
his own State, Morris, a late Democratic Senator in Congress, and 
Tappan, the present Senator, elected by the same party, are Aboli- 
tionists. And in Massachusetts, Marcus Morton, their standing candi- 
date for Governor and the only man they have ever been able to elect 
in that State, is an ultra Abolitionist; and for that very reason selected 
by them to secure the votes of the Abolitionists. You remember, sir, 
what a shout of joy was raised by the whole Democratic party, when 
it was ascertained that he had gotten in by a single vote. And, sir, 
the very resolutions from Massachusetts, which created such excite- 
ment at the beginning of the session — the resolutions, I mean, propos- 
ing to abolish slave representation in this House, were passed by the 
first, and indeed the only. Democratic legislature that the party ever 
have had in that State — and that, too, by a unanimous vote. Yes, 
sir, their party signalized their first triumph in the State of Massachu- 
setts by passing these resolutions, which, if carried out would at once 
dissolve the Unton. But the Southern members of the Democratic 
party on this floor, especially my culleague, (Mr. Saunders) endeavor 
to divert public attention from that fact, by making patriotic speeches 
against the Hartford Convention. They say that the very proposition 
of these resolves had its origin in that famous convention, and was 
one of its leading recommendations. Sir, I have no objection to this 
measure being traced for its origin to that convention. That was 
a justly odious body; and I should be pleased to see all propositions to 
dissolve this Union traced to such a parent. But, taking all this to be 
true, they cannot thus get out of the difhculty in which they are 
involved. The Hartford Convention produced this great political 
monster, as they denounce it to be; and, after it had existed for more 
than a quarter of a century, and its deformity had thereby become 
manifest to all the world, their party, as soon as they came into power, 
eagerly embraced, adopted it and made it thus their own. 



( 157 ) 

Let us look a little further. Garrison and Leavitt, editors of the 
leading Abolition papers at the North, as I am informed, attend the 
Van Buren meettngs, get resolutions passed denouncing Mr. Clay as a 
slaveholder, and are esteemed .good Democrats. 

Why, sir, what have we witnessed on this floor during the present 
session? The leading speech against the twenty-first rule, as it is 
commonly called, was made by a gentleman from New York, (Mr, 
Beardsley) generally understood all over the North to be high in the 
confidence of Martin Van Buren, and supposed to represent his views; 
and the Democratic papers in New York and elsewdiere claim great 
credit on this account for their party, saying that this Democratic 
Congress is opposed to the gag rule of the Whig Congress. Though 
our opponents have two to one on this floor, yet when we get them to 
a direct vote, the rule is defeated by a large majority. Out of nearly 
eighty Democratic members on this floor from the free States, wdth all 
possible coaxing, they can get only thirteen to vote in favor of the 
rule. How is it with the Southern wing of the party ? Its members 
make most vehement speeches in favor of the rule, declare that the 
Union w'ill be dissolved if it is abolished, and charge as high treason 
all opposition to it. Do they complain of their Northern allies for 
deserting them on this all-important question? No, sir; there is too 
good an understanding between them for this. But, in their speeches 
made for home consumption, they give it out that this all-important 
rule is likely to be defeated, because half a dozen Whigs from the South 
are against it. They are especially vehement in their denunciation of 
me, and desire to make the impression that its loss, if it should be 
rejected, is mainly to be attributed to my speech against it. I am 
pleased, Mr. Speaker, to have an opportunity of alluding to this topic, 
because, after set speeches had been made against me daily for two 
months, the party refused to allow^ me a single hour to reply.* The 
game wdiich they have been playing off is seen through by everybody 
here, and it is getting to be understood in the country There was a 
time when gentlemen, by giving themselves airs and talking largely 
of Southern rights in connection wath this subject, were able to give 



* I consider it as due to myself to state that I have lonj? been thorouglily con- 
vinced that opposition to the reception of Abolition petitions, one form of which is 
the twenty-first rule, had its origin in a political manoeuvre some eight or ten years 
since. A certain prominent Soutlieru politician, seeing that his course had rendered 
him unpopular generally, seized upon this question, to create excitement between 
the North and South, and unite the South thereby into a political party, of which he 
expected to be the head. There are also individuals at the North who, though pro- 
fessing opposition to the rule, sire, in my opinion, really desirous of its continuance, 
as a means of producing agitation in that quarter. A portion of them entertain the 
hope that the excitement there may attain a sufficient height to enable them success- 
fully to invade the institutions of the South; but the larger number are simply seek- 
ing to produce a strong prejudice in the popular mind in the free States against 
Southern institutions and men, on which to base a political party strong enough to 
control the ofiices of the country. Had an opportunity been afforded me, it was my 
purpose to have adverted to some facts in support of tliese opinions. Entertaining, 
myself, no doubt whatever of their correctness, there was but one course for me to 
take with respect to the existence of the rule. 



( 158 ) 

themselves consequence at home. But that day has passed. Its mock 
tragedy has degenerated into downright farce, and nobody will be 
humbugged much longer in this way. But the matter is important 
in one respect. Nothing could more fully show the utter profligacy 
of the party, its total want of all principle, than the course of its 
Northern and Southern wings on this question. They hope, however, 
by thus spreading their nets, to drag in votes in both sections of the 
Union, and thereby get into power. 

Still further to create a prejudice against me individually, they pre- 
tend that those members from the South who, in the last Congress, 
opposed the rule, were defeated on that account; and Messrs. Stanly 
and Botts were referred to. Now, sir, my colleague, (Mr. Saunders) 
who was one of those that endeavored to create this impression, knows 
very well how Mr. Stanly was defeated. He knows very well that the 
last legislature of our State, being a Democratic one, made a district 
purposely to defeat Mr. Stanly. They threw into his district some 
fifteen hundred Democratic votes, making, as they supposed, a clear 
majority of near one thousand votes against him. He, however, greatly 
reduced this majority. Notwithstanding his opposition to the 21st 
rule, he ran ahead of his party strength and if the sword of Brennus 
had not been thrown into the scale, Edward Stanly would have been 
here on this floor, to defend his votes against all assailants. 

We come next to Mr. John M. Botts. It would hardly be fair, 
would it, Mr. Speaker, for me to ask you, situated as you are, how that 
matter was? [The Speaker shook his head, and smiled.] Then I 
will state what I understand to be the facts. There, too, I have been 
informed that your party, who had the majority in the legislature, 
took especial pains to have Mr. Botts left at home. They threw a 
clear majority of some eight hundred votes against him in the new 
district which they made, and how far was it that you beat him ? 
Some thirty-two votes, I think. I learn, further, that in those counties 
which belonged to his old district, his majority was five hundred votes 
larger than it had ever been before. Does this look as if his active 
opposition to the 21st rule had weakened his strength or diminished 
his speed? If, however, it should be thought that the citizens of the 
Old Dominion did not fully understand his position, and had not 
fairly opened their eyes to the enormity of his course, I learn from 
him, as he is now here, contesting your seat, that he is perfectly willing 
to try the matter over again. 

But my colleague, (Mr. Saunders) in the course of his speech some 
time since, declared that he felt for my painful position, and that he 
extended to me his sympathy. I am infinitely obliged to him for his 
kind feeling ; but I tell him I have no need of his sympathy. I decline 
to take it. Let him keep it for a worthier object and a more fitting 
occasion. I tell him, Mr. Speaker, and I mean no disrespect to my 
colleague by the remark, I would not change places with him on this 
question for a cabinet appointment or a London mission to boot. My 
constituents know I do not need his sympathy. Whatever opinion 
they may entertain of me in other respects, they know that I will not 
hesitate to take any position that I regard as right, and that I will not 



(159) 

feel uncomfortable in that position. The gentleman also said, in the 
course of his speech, that the people of my section would not approve 
my course on this question. If I have been correctly informed, this 
is not the first prediction that that gentleman has made with reference 
to me. In the year 1840, he canvassed our State for the office of Gov- 
ernor. I was also a candidate at that time, in a district composed of 
several counties, for a seat in the State Senate. We had some passages 
at arms; and I afterwards heard that he expresssd the opinion that I 
would probably be beaten, because I had gone out of my way to assail 
him. [Mr. Saunders said it was a mistake; he had not made such a 
declaration.] I am glad of it, for the sake of the gentleman's reputa- 
tion as a prophet ; for I not only beat my competitor more than two to 
one, but my constituents, in their generosit}', gave me a larger vote than 
any one else has ever received in our State for that station. But the gen- 
tleman, at least, did say here that my constituents would not be pleased 
with my course. This may or may not be true. I may,* perhaps, be 
beaten ; but I shall not, at any rate, be beaten as Stanly and Botts 
were. There can be no gerrymandering to affect me. My district is 
unapproachable. She stands alone in her strength, and dreads no 
contact with the Democracy. On the contrary, she courts it. She 
would gladly embrace in either arm the two strongest Democratic dis- 
tricts in the State; and they would fall under that grasp as did the 
columns of the Philistine edifice before the strength of Sampson. 

I will make a prediction for my colleague. He will find that the 
Whiggism of that district has lost none of its spirit since 1840, but 
that it exists in increased strength and energy, and when November 
comes, the western reserve will send down from her mountains such a 
majority for Harry of the West as will sweep unresisted over the old 
North State. 

I will now, Mr. Speaker, advert to another matter, with a view of 
still further supporting the leading position with which I set out — 
that the party is only governed by the single principle above stated. 
Whenever any declaration of principle is brought forward as a mere 
abstract proposition, and such things always come from the Southern 
members, the whole party vote for it with great unanimity. If, how- 
ever, something practical comes up, any measure likely to affect the 
interests of the community, the party at once divides — the Northern 
fragment voting in accordance with the interests of their constituents, 
and abandoning their Southern brethren. There seems to be a tacit 
understanding among them all, that every measure which is effective 
for good or evil shall be carried in accordance with the wishes of the 
Northern members of the party, inasmuch as they are best pleased with 
something tangible, substantial, real. In consideration of getting the 
measures they want, they, by an easy efibrt, stretch their understand- 
ings or consciences, so as to adopt any mere abstract proposition that 
may sound most pleasantly in the ears of their Southern friends, who 
have thus far, from their conduct at least, seemed to think that they 
have the better side of the bargain, and appear to be much delighted 
therewith. 



(160) 

A distinguished modern French philosopher (M. Comte) says that 
science exists in three stages. The first he denominates the religious 
or superstitious age, in which men attribute the effects they witness to 
the direct agency of supernatural beings. Progressing somewhat 
beyond this, they reach what he terms the metaphysical age, during 
which they fashion in their minds abstract creations, to whose agency 
they refer the various changes that are going on in the world. The 
third stage, which he regards as the summit of our advancement, he 
denominates the positive or practical, during the existence of which 
men analyze facts and ascertain truth. Taking these definitions as 
guides, it is obvious that a considerable party in the country, having 
its main root in the State of Virginia, but branching into South Caro- 
lina and someother States, has attained only this second or metaphysical 
state, beyond which, in fact, it does not seem destined to pass, having 
made no prpgress whatever for many years. Its notions bear the same 
relation to sound political science that the logic of Aristotle and the 
schoolmen does to the Baconian philosophy of our day. With its 
members theory is everything, while facts, instead of being "stubborn 
things," are accounted as nothing. When contemplating them, one is 
constantly reminded of the ancient philosopher, who desired to be 
blind, in order that he might study nature to advantage. This sect, 
forming as it does a large part of the Southern wing of the Democratic 
party, is, from its mental constitution, therefore, constantly liable to be 
imposed on, and is easily humbugged by its more calculating and 
shrewder allies of the North. In the progress of matter we occasionally 
witness some very amusing scenes. You may remember, Mr. Speaker, 
that on Monday of last week certain resolutions were offered to this 
House, which, it seems, had been previously adopted at the Democratic 
Convention, which met at Baltimore in 1840, as a part of its creed, and 
which were supposed by some persons to occupy the very highest 
Southern ground against the tariff and abolition. These resolutions 
being the very essence of abstraction itself, that is, so general and vague 
as to mean nothing at all, passed this House with very little opposition. 
On the succeeding day we were called upon to vote on the adoption of 
the twenty-first rule. Thereupon, a gentleman from South Carolina, 
(Mr. Campbell) for whom I entertain a high respect personally, called 
for the reading of the resolution of the previous day on the subject of 
abolition. The gentleman, and some others, seemed to think that the 
party was concluded by the adoption of that resolution, and must of 
course, to be consistent, vote for the rule. Instead, however, of going 
for it unanimously, as they had done for the resolution, it was lost by 
a majority of twenty votes. On such occasions there is sometimes a 
family jar. The Southerners complain of bad faith, while those from 
the North insist that the South is too exacting, that they have already, 
to oblige them, voted for many resolutions, the recollection even of 
which is most humiliating. The quarrel, however, is easily reconciled. 
The Northern Democrats consent to vote for the most abstract resolu- 
tions which Southern ingenuity can frame, and the parties shake hands 
and are reconciled, as brethren should be. 



(161) 

The result of this practice I regard as most unfortunate for the 
country. If public men and parties habitually profess doctrines which 
they have no purpose of carrying into practice, it not only destroys 
the confidence of the community in politicians, but it corrupts the 
public morals, and will eventually end in the destruction of the gov- 
ernment. 

Having shown, Mr. Speaker, that on these important questions the 
so-called Democratic party is governed by no other principle than the 
one ascribed to it by Mr. Calhoun, I will proceed to the consideration 
of some other topics, which will afford arguments not less cogent and 
convincing. Let us look, in the Srst place, to its course on the sub- 
Treasury scheme. When this measure was first proposed by Mr. 
Gordon, of Virginia, in the year 1834, it was denounced by the lead- 
ing organs and politicians of the party as "disorganizing and revolu- 
tionary, and subversive of the fundamental practice of the government 
from its very origin," and the whole of their followers with one voice 
condemned it. As soon, however, as Mr. Van Buren became Presi- 
dent, in his very first message he recommended its adoption. There- 
upon, the mass of the party shifted its position, and at once came into 
the support of the very measure which they had denounced. Indeed, 
no battalion, under the order of its commander, on a parade day, ever 
changed fronts more suddenly. What are we to think of their adhesion 
to principle? How very different was the conductof the Whig party, 
when placed in a similar emergency. When John Tyler came into 
office, he possessed the confidence of the whole party. He suddenly 
abandoned his principles; and did that party follow him? No, sir; 
with all the patronage of the government in his hands, he could not 
carry off " a corporal's guard." They clung only the closer to their 
principles, and denounced him whom they had but just elevated to 
power. Yet, sir, it required high intellect and lofty patriotism to pass 
that fiery ordeal unscathed. History, in all its pages, affords no such 
example of devotion to principle, manifested by an immense political 
mass, as we exhibited on that occasion. If the country ever had doubts 
as to who was most worthy of his confidence, the noble bearing of the 
great Whig party in that trying emergency was sufficient to dispel 
them. Those who held high political stations in the administration 
all abandoned him. He, therefore, turned his attention to his former 
political adversaries, and his proffered embraces were not rejected. 
He had office to bestow, and they were the spoils part}^ and few and 
short were the words of wooing. Pie found himself at once in the 
bosom of the party, and most lovingly did they move on together, 
until it became necessary to kill him off for the benefit of a longer 
tried and dearer object of affection. Hence the denunciation that 
has been heaped upon John Tyler by the Van Buren press. 

This self-styled Democratic party, in its efforts to attain political 
power, stops at nothing, hesitates at nothing. What have we wit- 
nessed, sir, during this very session? Heretofore, several of the States 
of the Union had adopted the general ticket system of electing repre- 
sentatives to Congress. The result was, that the members thus elected 
ceased to be the representatives of the people, as the Constitution 
21 



(]62) 

intended them to be, and were in fact only representatives of irrespon- 
sible caucuses of the dominant parties in each State. The last Con- 
gress, seeing that if this mode was persevered in, and generally 
adopted, a total revolution would be effected in our political system, in 
execution of a power expressly given in the Federal Constitution, 
passed a law requiring that the members should in future be elected 
from single districts. Whatever difference of opinion might exist as 
to the expediency of this law, it was to have been hoped that at least 
it would be obeyed by all till it was repealed by the same authority 
that had passed it. Four States, however, in open defiance of its pro- 
visions, elected their representatives by general ticket. When they 
arrived here, the dominant party, to which they all belonged but two, 
seeing that the general ticket mode of election favored their view of 
stripping the people of power, and centralizing it in the hands of a 
few politicians, by means of the caucus system which it called into 
play, admitted these individuals to seats, as members on this floor, in 
direct violation of the law of the land, thereby exhibiting the mon- 
strous example of the law makers of a country disregarding and nul- 
lifying, and thus bringing into general contempt their own laws. I 
will not say, sir, that the members of the majority may not have 
believed themselves justified, but I do declare that no argument I 
have heard made here, in defence of their course, was, in my judg- 
mentvSufficiently ingenious or plausible to have induced the dullest 
jury I ever saw in an inferior court to acquit a defendant on the State 
docket. Let me remind you, sir, of another part of that transaction. 
After the resolution of the gentleman from New York, (Mr. Barnard) 
embodying the protest of the Whig members against the proceedings 
of the majority, had been on the journal some days, and votes had 
been taken on it, according to all the principles of parliamentary law, 
under which we were then acting, it was entitled to a place on the 
journal. In addition to this was the binding force of our Federal Con- 
stitution, which we had all taken an oath to support, and which 
required us to keep a journal of our proceedings; yet, sir, because that 
protest contained matter which condemned their course, and was on 
that account offensive to them, they coolly and deliberately expunged 
the whole resolution and protest from the journal, thereby making it 
tell a falsehood to our constituents and to after ages. 

It is not long, Mr. Speaker, since the members of this same JJemo- 
cratic party, happening to have a majority in the Senate of the Ten- 
nessee Legislature, for two whole years refused to join in the election 
of Senators to Congress, leaving their State thereby entirely unrepre- 
sented, and thus violated the Constitution which they had sworn to 
support; because they feared that Whigs might be elected. If this 
were only the act of that most ignominious "thirteen," it would not 
be worthy of notice here; but their party, throughout the Union, 
instead of joining the Whigs in denouncing such a lawless act, gen- 
erally defended and applauded it, as an evidence of their devotion to 
their party. Even the Dorr rebellion is patronized by this same party. 
Thomas W. Dorr, perhaps the greatest coward chronicled in history, 
with a band of hired ruffians from the city of New York, without a 



(163) 

shadow of right, invades the gallant little State of Rhode Island with 
a view of overturning the Constitution, and making himself master 
of affairs. Her brave citizens take arms to defend their government; 
and Mr. Dorr, on both occasions, leaves his army and runs away the 
night before he expects a fight to take place. His followers being dis- 
heartened, and finding that they are likely to get more of blows than 
of the booty promised them, surrender. Yet this Dorr, and his fol- 
lowers, deserving nothing but detestation for their wickedness, and for 
their cowardice still more contemptible than they are wicked, find 
advocates and eulogists in both Houses of Congress, as well as 
throughout the country, among the leaders of the Locofoco party; and 
the moral sense of the country is shocked by hearing them compared 
to Washington and the other heroes of our Revolution. 

What do they think of repudiation itself? A State borrows money, 
and uses it; and she afterwards refuses to pay the debt, and repudiates 
it; and this monstrous doctrine, instead of being everywhere de- 
nounced, instead of being met by one universal shout of execration, 
is in some quarters excused and defended. I rejoice, however, that no 
Whig can be numbered among its apologists. If there was such an 
individual in our ranks, I should desire to see him at once expelled 
from the party. It is a question about which I, for one, cannot con- 
sent to temporize. With the opinions I hold, it would be criminal in 
me not to denounce it on all proper occasions. It is a cancer in our 
system, which, if not removed, will destroy our national character, 
and everything else which we ought most to value. Important as is 
character to individuals, it is still more so to Sta,tes. When a people 
have lost all sense of national honor, the immutable laws of Provi- 
dence forbid them to be anything but slaves. 

And, sir, members of the party which has performed, defended and 
applauded all these things, undertake to lecture us on morals, and 
express great apprehension lest the country should be corrupted by 
Clay banners and Whig songs. But I will pursue this part of the 
subject no further. The facts I have already adverted to are suflicient 
to satisfy every impartial mind of the truth of the proposition, that 
the leaders of this party are united only for the purpose of carrying 
elections and obtaining office, and are held together solely by the 
"cohesive power of public plunder." 

I will now proceed, Mr. Speaker, to remark on some other topics 
introduced by the gentleman from Ohio. It is insisted that justice 
requires the restoration of Mr. Van Buren to office. He uses the argu- 
ment himself substantially in his letters, and his friends generally 
make it their strongest point. The argument, briefly stated is this: 
He was ejected from office in 1840, by means of the charges and 
denunciations brought against him by the Whigs. The Democracy 
was thereby wronged, humiliated, and degraded, in his person and by 
his sufferings. Justice to the injured feelings and wounded spirit of 
that Democracy requires that he should be restored to office. Well, 
sir, if this argument be sound, it applies with equal force to Richard 
M. Johnson, the Vice-President, who was put out with Mr. Van Buren. 
It covers, too, an immense multitude who were denounced and driven 



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out by us. Swartwout, Boyd, Harris, the whole army of defaulters, have 
the same reason to complain of Whig denunciation and expulsion. 
You remember, sir, how numerous they were; out of sixty odd land 
receivers, about fifty proved defaulters, to say nothing of the other 
branches of the government. They have all been kept out of office; 
in fact, I believe we have not had a single defalcation in the three 
years since Mr. Van Buren went out. These men have strong claims, 
under this argument, to be restored to their former privileges and 
immunities. 

And are not its measures as dear to the party as its men ? If so, 
the argument applies to them to, and you must restore the large 
expenditures and the army bill. 

The ghost of the sub-Treasury which we denounced more and killed 
off sooner than anything else, might stalk over the land haunting the 
Democracy, if it were not restored to its former pride of place. 

By the by, Mr. Speaker, I should like to inquire of the gentleman 
from Ohio, as to what has become of his proposition to re-establish 
this sub-Treasury scheme? At an early day of the session, he intro- 
duced a resolution instructing the committee to report a bill for that 
purpose. This resolution was adopted by the House by a vote of 
nearly two to one, all the party going for it. Two or three months 
have elapsed, and yet we have no report. Is it not to be brought for- 
ward? [Mr. Duncan here interposed, and said it would.] I have no 
doubt the gentleman expects it to be brought up ; but, sir, I have 
heard it suggested that the knowing ones of the party think this an 
injudicious move, and that the zeal of that member outran his dis- 
cretion. They think, probably, that it is inexpedient for the party to 
show its hand on this question till after the Presidential election is 
over. The gentleman's party have a large majority on that committee, 
and I wish to know of them why they do not report? It cannot be 
that they have not been able to frame a bill in all this time. It was 
only necessary for them to copy from the statute book the old sub- 
Treasury act. Are they afraid that the skeleton of the dead monster 
will frighten the nation ? Or are they only keeping it back till after 
the Virginia election is over? I call upon them to give us a report. 
It is an issue of their own making, and I am for holding them to it. 

But the nation is called upon to reverse the decision of 1840, ren- 
dered against Martin Van Buren. And w4ien the people, who gave 
that verdict, after a most patient investigation, ask him and his friends 
for new evidence on which to base that reversal, what is the reply 
they get from the member from Ohio, and others of the party? "Ask 
us for new evidence: You know that you rendered a false verdict, 
because you were bribed to it with British gold. Your heads were 
turned with Whig songs, and some of you were drunk on hard cider !" 
Do they really suppose that American freemen are already so much 
humbled as to be willing to make these degrading confessions? that 
they can be driven by such a course of argument either to stultify 
themselves, or admit that they have acted corruptly ? 

The member from Ohio says he endorses the complaint made this 
morning by a gentleman from Alabama, (Mr. Payne) that Whig songs 



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have been sent off through the post office. I have learned, from a 
source entitled to full credit, that the members of their party have, 
within the last week, sent off some fifty thousand copies of a single 
document. And what important communication, Mr. Speaker, would 
you suppose they are sending abroad to enlighten the nation? A 
pamphlet professing to give an account of Mr. Clay's duels, from the 
Expositor office, written, it is said, by Amos Kendall. This old ingrate, 
after having spent a life of wickedness, is, it seems, now seized with 
qualms of conscience, has become exceedingly righteous, and seeks to 
atone for his past crimes b}' writing and publishing libels on his for- 
mer benefactor — an instrument most worthily selected for so foul a 
purpose. And who are the pious persons that are engaged in circulating 
it ? Almost ever}^ individual among them is a supporter and eulogist of 
General Jackson — a man who not only fought more duels than Mr. 
Clay, but who had the misfortune on one occasion at least, to kill his 
antagonist. They number among their prominent men in Congress 
more than one individual who has been concerned in duels. Well 
may we tremble for the morals of the country when such Pharisees 
become our teachers of virtue and religion. They say, I am told, that 
it will not do to circulate these things at the South, but they are sent 
by thousands to Connecticut, a land of "steady habits." Have they 
so low an opinion of the sagacity of the people there as to suppose that 
by such a shallow artifice, such barefaced hypocrisy, they can divert 
their attention from the great issues involved in the coming elections ? 
The gentleman laments that the Whigs will not show their hands, 
and that he cannot find out what their principles are. He undertakes 
to make speeches to enlighten the country on political matters, and 
not know what are the principles of the Whig party ! Why, sir, 
there is hardly a man in my district who could not inform him fully 
on this point. After this confession on his part I am not surprised 
that he should have thrown out so many absurd doctrines. In order 
that he may no longer wander in Egyptian darkness, I will endeavor 
to inform him as to some of the leading Whig principles : First, as to 
mere matters of policy, we are generally in favor of a tariff, such as I 
have indicated already. With respect to the public lands, we are 
averse to seeing their proceeds go to support the ordinary expenses of 
this government; and we are utterly opposed to that policy which 
finds so much favor with the gentleman's party — that is, a surrender 
of them to the States in which they lie; but we desire to see their pro- 
ceeds distributed among all the States, to relieve some of them from 
heavy taxation ; to enable them to maintain their honor by discharg- 
ing the debts they have already incurred, and to aid all of them in 
diffusing the benefits of education generally among their citizens. We 
also hold it to be the duty of the government to furnish a sound cur- 
rency of uniform value throughout the Union, by means of a well- 
regulated and closely guarded national institution, which may, on the 
one hand, relieve us from the evils of an exclusively metallic currenc}', 
and on the other protect us from the mischiefs of a fictitious, bloated 
paper currency, of unequal value in different sections, created by a 
multitude of ill-managed, unsound, local banks. We are, as a party, 



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opposed to such a profligate system of expenditures as the country 
witnessed under Martin Van Buren's administration, and in favor of 
holding public officers to strict accountability. Upon all these ques- 
tions of policy the Whigs are united, with very few exceptions. But 
there are some great cardinal principles which we cherish with entire 
unanimity, and which I will attempt briefly to unfold. The gentleman 
declared that ours was the Federal party. Does he not know that 
James Buchanan, the individual he eulogizes so highly, and who was 
but lately held up as a candidate for the Presidency in several States 
by his party, was an ultra Federalist, according to his own admission, 
until very lately? Is he not aware that a countless number of the 
members of his party formerly belonged to the old Federal ranks ? 
Perhaps he may say that these individuals have changed their views, 
and that this circumstance is not a conclusive test. So be it, then. 
But I will not take the declarations of him and his party as aff'ording 
any evidence of their Democracy. No one in common life would 
determine the principles of a man simply by his professions, but he 
would look to conduct, as furnishing a much surer test. What were 
the principles of the old Federal party in the year 1800 ? They thought 
the executive branch of the government in that day too weak, and 
endeavored to enlarge the powers of the President. This was supposed 
to be their cardinal principle, and they sought to strengthen the 
President and diminish the privileges of the people. Some of the means 
they used to eff'ect this object were the sedition law, the increase of the 
army and navy, and an enlargement of the expenditures of the gov- 
ernment, so as to increase the patronage of the President, and thus 
indirectly add to his power. The Republicans of that day, believ- 
ing that the government had already power enough, resisted these 
measures. 

The contest, therefore, rested on the same principles on which was 
based the struggle between the Whig and Tory parties in England. 
There the Tories have ever been found on the side of the Crown, strug- 
gling to increase its prerogatives and enlarge its powers, so as gradually, 
unless resisted, to convert the government into a despotism. But the 
Whigs have ever been the champions of popular rights, and have 
incessantly labored to keep within proper bounds, and reduce if possi- 
ble, the overgrown monarchical power in that country. Where, then, 
Mr. Speaker, does the gentleman from Ohio stand? Where is his 
party, tried by this standard? The immense expenditures of Mr. 
Van Buren's administration, its corrupting patronage, its sub-Treas- 
ury, the army bill — I need not mention them, for they will start 
up of themselves before your mind. All these are defended and 
sustained by our adversaries, because they tend to increase the 
power of the executive branch of the government. On this account, 
they are pleased with the frequent exercise of the veto power, in 
contempt of the will of the people. If the President, seeing that 
a bill will be passed by a majority of two-thirds in spite of his veto, 
should refuse to return it to Congress, and thus prevent their passing 
it into a law, such an act of tyranny is applauded by them. If he 
should corruptly refuse to carry into execution a law already made, 



1167) 

he is defended and greatly eulogized. They desire to see a President^ 
eligible a second time to office. When, therefore, he is once in power, 
if he be a selfish and unprincipled man, instead of discharging his 
official duties, his whole attention is directed to the securing of his re- 
election. Having the appointment of more than fifty thousand officers, 
he selects his friends for office, and threatens with removal all who do 
not electioneer for him. This system was brought into the administra- 
tion of the Federal government by Mr. Van Buren, when he became 
Secretary of State. He and his friends justify it by saying, that the 
offices of the country are spoils, which belong to the victor party. 
The tendency of this system is to convert the office-holders of the 
country into a mercenary army of electioneerers, commanded by the 
President. So sensible was Mr. Jefferson of the mischief likely to 
result from this condition of things, that he published a circular-letter 
forbidding the officers of government on pain of dismissal from office, 
to interfere, except by simply voting, in any manner in the elections. 
General Harrison did the same thing, as soon as he came into the 
Presidential chair. But Mr. Van Buren not only requires them to 
take part in his favor, but, as the reports of the investigating commit- 
tees of this House prove, they were compelled, by a threat of dismissal 
from office, to pay in proportion to the salary of each, a tax to raise a 
fund for electioneering purposes. The adoption of this system 
accounts for the large number of defaulters in Mr. Van Buren's time. 
Officers were not selected because they were "honest and capable," as 
Mr. Jefferson advised, but because they had rendered the party service. 
Hence, after it was known that they were taking money from the pub- 
lic Treasury, as the published correspondence of Levi AVoodbury, the 
then Secretary of the Treasur}^, shows, they were still retained in office, 
in some instances, because they had extensive connections, and were 
influential in carrying the elections 

While they have been supporting all these measures, so corrupting 
and monarchical in their tendency, the gentleman and his party, with a 
view of diverting public attention from their acts, and deceiving the 
careless and ignorant, have been making loud and unceasing profes- 
sions of Republicanism and Democracy, therein verifying the predic- 
tion of Mr. Jefferson, that the next effort of those who maintained the 
old Federal doctrines to get into power would be made after they had 
stolen our name. Whatever was most pernicious among the doc- 
trines of the old Federal party they have adopted, without its open- 
ness and honesty of purpose. Under their S3'stem, the executive 
power is advancing with rapid strides, the public morals are daily 
becoming more and more corrupt, and, unless it be arrested, our liber- 
ties will be lost. Sir, we have nothing to fear from foreign force. No 
free government was ever destroyed in this way. As long as they are 
animated by a proper spirit, the feeblest nations have been able to 
repel invasion. The little States of Greece, while they remained vir- 
tuous and ardent lovers of liberty, were an overmatch for all Asia. 
They afterwards fell a prey to the petty kingdom of Macedon. But it 
was not until the gold of Philip had penetrated into the heart of 
Greece, that his steel could triumph on the fatal field of Cheronea. 



(168) 

f To resist the downward tendency of things, the great Whig party 
are united to a man now, as they have ever been, against the exten- 
sion of executive power. As a means of effecting its reduction to 
proper limits, they are for a single Presidential term, for the modifica- 
tion of the veto power, for the separation of the purse and the sword, 
for the reduction of patronage, for the non-interference of govern- 
ment officers in elections, and for the rigid supervision of all execu- 
tive officers by Congress. 

We have been taught, however, by bitter experience, that princi- 
ples, however good, will not execute themselves. There is a man 
whose whole life has connected him with these great principles. For 
nearly forty years his time and talents have been devoted, in our leg- 
islative halls, to their propagation. Once, too, in an executive station 
he had an opportunity, to some extent, of testing his sincerity, and his 
conduct there was in accordance with his declarations elsewhere. I 
may be pardoned for saying that the administration with which he 
was connected as Secretary of State deserves to hold the highest place 
in public estimation, when considered with reference to its rigid econ- 
omy in expenditure, its freedom from all usurpation of power, all 
attempts to exercise its patronage improperly, and total abstinence 
from proscription for opinion's sake. The individual to whom I allude 
filled a large space in the public eye during the last war with Great 
Britain. There was a peace party in that day, such as the gentleman 
from Ohio spoke of, and that party selected De Witt Clinton as its 
candidate for the Presidency, against James Madison, the war candi- 
date; and Martin Van Buren, the gentleman's favorite, was an active 
and most zealous supporter of Clinton. He to whom I allude was not 
of this party. On the contrary, he was the most ardent advocate of 
that war, and proclaimed, in trumpet tones, that sooner than submit 
to British wrongs, he would prefer to see the American people expire 
in a common struggle for "free trade and sailors' rights." Not such 
free trade as some advocate in our day, the allowing foreigners to sell 
their productions here without being obliged to pay duties, while their 
governments impose burdens on us. No, sir; it was for the privilege 
of carrying our own goods in our own ships across the ocean, without 
having those ships seized, searched and plundered, and our seamen 
impressed into the British navy. Sir, being the most active of all 
our public men, he had originated more great measures than all others 
of his time. Often were they deemed bold, hazardous and inexpedient 
by his compeers, but his eagle-eyed sagacity, and enlarged patriotism 
did not fail to select that course which the matured judgment of the 
nation approved. Sometimes he stood almost alone; yet when his 
position has seemed most critical, such has been the fertility of his 
invention and the extent of his resources, that he has then ever achieved 
the greatest triumphs. 

For instances, let me refer you to his course in relation to the 
acknowledgment of South American independence, to the origin of the 
land distribution scheme, to his conduct in relation to our difficulties 
with France, and to the introduction of the compromise bill in 1833. 
I will advert, more particularly, to one event of his life, which has by 



(169) 

some been thought rash, because there was once a diversity of opinion 
in relation to it, and because it illustrates, in my view, same traits in 
iiis character. He was one of the five commissioners at Ghent, who 
closed the war with England by treaty. The British commissioners 
insisted that we should cede to Great Britain the right to the free nav- 
igation of the Mississippi river. After much argument, a majority of 
our commissioners all highly patriotic individuals, determined to con- 
cede the demand. He, thereupon, with a full knowledge of the fact 
that Great Britain, having just terminated her war successfully with 
Napoleon, was prepared to turn all her arms against us, declared that he 
would affix his name to no such treaty, and that he would take upon 
himself the sole responsibilit}^ of defeating it and continuing the war. 
Circumstances did not render this course necessary on his part, but no 
one doubted that he would, if it had been necessary, have executed 
this determination. Was this rashness on his part? Great Britain 
allowed us no such privilege on her rivers. He placed a high estimate 
on the value of national character; he felt that, to protect it from the 
slightest shade, it was well to expend much toil and treasure, and the 
lives of brave men; and he knew that such a provision would, by the 
world, be regarded as an acknowledgment on our part of a superiority 
which Great Britain had not been able to obtain in a war of more 
than two years. Our brave soldiers and seamen had successfully 
maintained our national honor on land and on the ocean, against the 
red cross of England, and he could not think of breaking their spirits 
by any concession of superiority to her. How would the news of such 
a treaty have been received by them ? What would have been the 
feelings of Harrison, who captured Upper Canada from England? 
What those of Scott, Kipley, Brown, Perry and McDonough? What 
would Jackson have said, who was then defending the Mississippi 
itself? How would this have fallen on the ear of Decatur, that " Bay- 
ard of the ocean," as he was bearing your flag over the seas? Was 
this rashness on the part of that distinguished individual? If so, it 
was like the rashness of Leonidas at the pass of Thermopylae. He had 
been sent far in advance of the rest of his countrymen, to show an 
example, to receive the first shock of the Persian invasion, and to pro- 
tect his country's territory safe from the impress of a hostile foot. And 
when he found that he would be overpowered by numbers and treach- 
ery, instead of retreating, he held on to that pass with a firm foothold, 
and won a name which time has only rendered more illustrious. Was 
this rashness on his part? It was the height of prudence. Leonidas 
knew well that the dying of his little band on that lone sea beach, in 
the face of the world, would be worth more to the liberties of Greece 
that ten thousand lives. Actions like this give a nation character, 
and elevate the minds of her sons to such a pitch, that they have spirit 
and energy to overcome all obstacles. 

It is the province of a great genius, when common minds are bewild- 
ered and made dizzy by the contemplation of a chaos of dangers, to 
point the path to safety. It was in an emergency like this that another 
great Greek, Themistocles, when the allied navy was about to be sepa- 
rated and disbanded, by a bold stratagem brought on the sea fight at 
22 



(170) 

Salamis, and preserved his country. But to the fertile genius, vast 
sagacity and large patriotism of Themistocles, Henry Clay has added 
the justice of his rival, Aristides, the frankness of Cato, the daring of 
Csesar, the eloquence of Tully. He never failed a friend or fled a foe. 
When the storm was wildest, his voice had been heard loadest. When 
the battle was hottest, he has ever stood in the front of the column. 
His path has led him through many a difficulty and danger. At 
times, he might have complained of ingratitude and obloquy. Once 
it seemed as if he was destined to go down to his grave with a cloud on 
his fame. 

But, for all this, he never wavered or hesitated for one moment in 
his onward course. Ever bearing a high heart under adversity, he has 
stood erect in the darkest hours of the Republic, and kept alive the 
spirit of liberty, and of resistance to tyranny and oppression. Many 
of those who started with him at the outset of his career have fainted 
by the way-side, or wandered away from their principles; but he has 
been 

Faithful found, 

Among the faithless, ****** 
****** unmoved, 

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified; 

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal. 

Nor number nor example with him wrought, 
^ To swerve from truth or change his constant mind. 

He has now grown gray in the public service, and, in the nature of 
things, cannot remain much longer on the stage of action. And will 
you permit him to go down into his grave without bestowing on him 
the highest honors in the gift of the nation? Will you retain the 
memorials of his great spirit, in the shape of countless benefits, and 
turn your back on the giver? From present indications, should Prov- 
idence permit him to live, we shall not long bear such a reproach. 
Sir, men have lived perhaps, who were as much admired, who excited 
as much enthusiasm among their contemporaries, but they were men 
who had won renown in camps. Their laurels were stained with 
blood. The red glare of battles was on them. No mere civic chieftain 
ever before excited such enthusiastic ardor in the minds of his coun- 
trymen. It is a compliment to the genius of this age, which prefers 
the civil virtues to mere military glory. And, with such principles 
and such a man, what have we to dread? 

The gentleman from Ohio tells the Democracy to fear not; that they 
will carry nineteen States. From the account which he gives us of 
their defeat in 1840, I take this to be a most extravagant boast on his 
part. But he complains of our having used new and extraordinary 
means in the contest. We brought to bear against them, it seems, a 
novel invention of modern warfare, the log cabin. Sir, I have heard 
of troops that could not resist a charge of the bayonet, and of some 
that could not stand fire at all; but the gentleman's Democrats were 
really a peculiar set of soldiers. We did not use against them Paixhan 
guns, or even torpedoes. The rattling of a coon skin put them to 
flight. According to the gentleman, they stood arrayed like the Mace- 



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donian phalanx, but a cup of hard cider was presented, and they went 
down before it. 

The gentleman, I do not question, has good reason to complain of 
and denounce this last weapon, as many of his allies have doubtless 
fallen under it. I will put a question to the gentleman, the answer to 
which I hope he will calculate in figures. If his army of Democrats 
were totally defeated in 1840, by log cabins, hard cider and coon skins, 
used against them by one who, according to the gentleman's own 
declarations at that time, was an old dotard, kept in a cage, who was 
so great a coward that he ran away from every battle that he ever 
heard of, and whose most appropriate dress was a flannel petticoat, ' 
how long will that army be able to stand up against the strength and 
spirit of the great Whig party of this day, led on by the first man of 
the age? Upon what does the gentleman build his hope of success? 
Ah, but he says British gold was used to buy up votes. Well, sir, I 
perceive, from the newspapers, that money is unusually plenty in 
England at this time, and I have no doubt that his Democrats want it 
just as much now as they did four years ago. But we used log cabins; 
and will our forests not furnish us with materials to build them this 
year? Then there were coon skins in 1840. Yes, and the requisite num- 
ber can be procured again. Worst of all, however, was the hard cider. 
I tell him it will flow like water this year, and it will become very 
hard to Democratic palates by next November. 

To be serious, however, Mr. Speaker, let me tell the member from 
Ohio, that he does great injustice to his party, when he says it was 
thus defeated. I have no doubt but that he is extremely anxious to 
create the impression that nothing more serious could be brought 
against it, and that its overthrow was entirely owing to these means. 
No, sir; you might as well say that Niagara's current owes its power 
and rapidity to the bubbles that float on its surface. All these things 
were but emblems, borne upon the vast popular current. The large 
expenditures of that administration, its profligacy, its keeping de- 
faulters in its bosom for years after their crimes were known, its 
patronage, and proscription, its army bill, its sub-treasury, giving the 
president the money power of the nation, and grinding the people 
in the dust under its hard money system, its general contempt of 
the will of the people, these things beat the gentleman's party, and 
they will beat it again. Yes, sir, they will heat it again. Already 
dismay begins to be visible in the faces of the members of the 
party here, and some of them are attributing the strong current 
against them to Mr. Van Buren's unpopularity. I have heard it 
suggested in some quarters that that has happened to him which 
frequently occurs to old horses: that, after having been once dis- 
tanced, have been off the turf a long while, that he has broken down 
in his second training. If it be, then, true that he is off" his legs, 
select another horse. We are not very particular as to who may be 
our antagonist, I regard Mr. Van Buren as a quiet, rather timid 
man, of little will of his own, and inclined to go with the current of 
his party. These features in his character make him the worst man 
of all, if elected. He is the instrument of an irresponsible body of 



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men, that always has less moderation, less fairness, and less conscience, 
than a single individual, whatever may be his disposition naturally, 
feels bound, by a regard for public opinion, to manifest. Mr. Calhoun, 
if elected, would be, in many respects, vastly superior. He has talents, 
strength of will, and pride of character, and feeling conscious that the 
eye of the nation was fixed on him, we should have less to dread. If, 
however, rumor is to be credited, he was, a few weeks since, bartered 
away by his partizans in A^irginia, with the concurrence of some else- 
■where, to Mr. Van Buren, for a share, in prospect, of the spoils of the 
next presidential canvass. Being strongly tempted by the glittering 
bait, it seems they came to the conclusion that they could make the 
most of him by such a sale. In contemplating these individuals, one 
is irresistibly forced to think of the Swiss soldiers of the middle ages, 
who changed sides as often as a better bid was offered. 

By means of the caucus system, the partisans of Mr. Van Buren 
have killed off all the other prominent men of the party, and it is now 
too late to select another leader. When we are charging you at the 
point of the bayonet, you will have no time to change commanders. If 
you think you can, tnj it. We care not who is your leader; we shall 
have the same principles and the same men to contend against, and 
we shall be at you far more easily than we did before. The nation, 
relieved from your disastrous measures, and aided by a partial adop- 
tion of ours, is recovering from its former ruinous condition, and it never 
will consent to come under your dominion again. Talk of the cam- 
paign of 1840, as if it had exhausted our energies! Our ancestors 
struggled through seven campaigns, to achieve our independence, and 
we, their descendants, taught that eternal vigilance is i\\Q price of lib- 
erty, can, if necessary, go through seventy more campaigns like that of 
1840. But we are taunted, from time to time, with our small num- 
bers on this floor. Sir, the organization of this House affords no index 
of the popular sentiment of the nation. North Carolina is represented 
by a majority of Democrats here; but let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, the 
Whig majority in my distiict is large enough, if it had been distri- 
buted over the State at the last election, to have given us an unani- 
mous representation on this floor. And, still, there is another district 
in North Carolina stronger even in Whigism than the one I am so 
proud to represent. Though in this House we are but as one man, 
out of it we are a thousand. The bone and sinew of the country, the 
strength and spirit of the nation are with us. We have the gray-haired 
veteran to plan, the generous youth to execute, and the smiles of the 
fair ladies to cheer us on; and shall we not conquer? The noble 
banner we have raised we shall maintain at all hazards. We shall 
bear it high above the tumult, above the dust, and out of danger. And, 
with the favor of Providence, under its folds we shall win another vic- 
tory not less brilliant and glorious than that of 1840, and I trust far 
richer in its benefits to the country. 

NOTE. 

The course of the Whigs on this bill of Duncan's shows with how little 
wisdom men often act. Because Duncan, a Democrat, offered it, the Whigs 
resisted and defeated it. Had it then been passed, it is almost certain that 



(173) 

Mr. Clay would have been elected. The States at that time voted on various 
days as each one chose to do, and it so happened that several of those adverse 
to Mr. Clay voted early and thus tended to Aveaken him. The great shout 
raised by the anxious multitude assembled at the wharf in New York, when 
it was announced by the passengers on the deck of the Philadelphia boat just 
arriving, that Pennsylvania had gone for Polk, was believed to have had a 
decided effect on the election which soon occurred in New York. After 
having been so terribly wounded, the Whigs, as men usually do after being 
seriously hurt, acquiesced in the proposition to establish an uniform day for the 
Presidential election throughout the United States. 



SPEECH 

ON THE CAUSES OF MR. CLAY'S DEFEAT, DELIVERED IN THE 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 6, 1845. 

Mb. Chairman: I shall leave it to those who desire it to discuss the 
constitutionality or expediency of the proposed annexation of Texas. It 
is not expected by anybody that any practical result, in the way of leg- 
islation, is to grow out of these proceedings. Doubtless you may be able, 
as was suggested the other day by the gentleman from South Carolina, 
to pass an abstract resolution, after the fashion of your Baltimore Con- 
vention, declaring that Texas ought to be annexed as soon as practicable. 
Your agitation of the matter is intended solely to produce capital to 
operate on our elections at the South during the present year, and I 
shall, therefore, meet the question on its real and not its ostensible merits. 

The chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, (Mr. C. J. 
Ingea'soll,) who opened the debate, stated that there had been a very- 
decided manifestation of popular opinion in favor of the annexation, and 
was pleased to refer to the late Pi-esidential election as furnishing evi- 
dence of it. The gentleman from Illinois, (Mr. Douglass,) who immedi- 
ately preceded me in the debate, declared, with great vehemence, that 
the popular verdict had been recorded in favor of the measure, and that 
if those who were now on this floor failed to carry out the wishes of the 
people, they would be swept away by a torrent of public indignation, 
and men be sent in their places who were more faithful. If all this were 
true, sir, it would furnish a strong argument in favor of the measure, 
because, in a representative Republic, like ours, popular opinion is of the 
greatest consequence. I shall endeavor to show, however, that these 
gentlemen are totally mistaken in these views; but to do so will oblige 
me to examine a good deal in detail the causes which contributed to 
produce the result exhibited in that election. 

I must, in the first place, however, ask the indulgence of the House 
for a few minutes, while I advert to a matter not directly connected with 
this subject. 

At the last session, when a proposition to repeal the twenty-fifth rule 
was under consideration, it will be remembered that the debate was pro- 



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longed for nearly three months, and as each speech was concluded, more 
than twenty chivalric gentlemen sprang to their feet and struggled for 
an opportunity to manifest their ardor in behalf of Southern rights. 
And it was only, sir, by resorting to the previous question tliat we were 
able to teruiinate the debate before the close of tlie session. 

On the first day of the present session, the gentleman from Massachu- 
setts (Mr. Adams) gave notice that he would on to-morrow introduce a 
proposition to abolish the rule. Thereupon the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Dromgoole) likewise gave notice that he would object to the recep- 
tion of the resolution, because it would be out of order. On the suc- 
ceeding day, the gentleman from Massachusetts, in accordance with his 
promise, offered his resolution to rescind tlie rule, but tlie gentleman 
from Virginia, though in his place, greatly to the surprise of everybody, 
made no objection to its introduction. If that gentleman, or any other 
member, had objected to its reception, it could only have been gotten in 
by a suspension of the rules, and it was well known that a vote of two- 
thirds could not have been obtained for that purpose. The proposition 
came in without a word of objection from any quarter. Thereupon, a 
gentleman from Mississippi, acting under the old dispensation of Democ- 
racy, not having, I presume, from his location in the far Southwest, seen 
the new revelation of light in the JSTortheast, moved to lay the resolution 
on the table. A vote was taken by yeas and nays, and his motion was 
lost by a decided majority, making it evident that the rule would be 
repealed. The Speaker stated the question to be on the adoption of the 
resolution to rescind the rule. The previous question had not been 
ordered, and the matter was, therefore, open for debate. I looked around 
to see what bold champion of the South would first sound the tocsin of 
alarm. There was a full array of the chivalry around. There in his 
seat on my right was the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Rhett,) 
who at the last session declared, with so much eloquence and zeal, that 
a repeal of the rule would be a virtual dissolution of the Union. 

There sat my colleague, (Mr. Saunders,) who went off on this matter 
with a force that sent him during the past summer over the entire State 
of North Carolina, declaiming against the reception of abolition petitions. 
There, too, were the gentlemen from Georgia and other States, who vied 
with each other in their denunciation of all those who did not sustain the 
rule. There all of these gentlemen sat, quiet and mute, as though 
nothing unusual was taking place, and saw, with much seeming uncon- 
cern, their favorite rule killed off by a large majority. There was no 
burst of indignation; no exclamation to the South, "'Samson, the Philis- 
tines be upon thee !" Not even the note of a goose, to give warning of 
the irruption of the Gauls, Were they asleep, like the Koman sentinels 
of the olden time? No, no, sir; they were awake, but they were false 
watchmen of the South — traitor sentinels! I have a right so to call 
them; for, in denouncing me at the last session, some of them declared 
that any man who did not sustain the rule by all proper means was a 
renegade and a traitor to the Southern States. According to the form 
of the logicians, the proposition would be as follows: any Southern man 
who does not use his efforts to preserve the rule is a renegade traitor. 
They were Southern men, and might have preserved the rule by objec- 



(175) 

tion at the proper time, but would not do it. Therefore, they are rene- 
gade traitors. Quod erat demonstrandum, as the sophomores say. 

How are we, Mr. Chairman, to account for the extraordinary change 
in the conduct of gentlemen since the Presidential election ? And I 
may also ask, wli}- is it that Leavitt, the Abolition editor, Mdio was refused 
at the last session a seat among the reporters of the House, is now the 
occupant of one of the best positions in the Hall 1* I told you all at the 
last session that this twenty-fifth rule was a humbug, getting to be so 
well understood that it would deceive nobody much longer, and must 
soon be abandoned by its authors. Will gentlemen come out frankly 
and admit that all their parade at the last session was a mere humbug — 
one of the most barefaced political frauds ever attempted to be played 
off for party purposes? If they will not admit this — if they still insist 
that the rule is of any value, why did they give it up without a struggle ? 
Was it done as com])ensation to their abolition allies in the North, by 
whose aid they carried the great States of New York and Pennsylvania, 
and thereby elected Mr. Polk? I do not wish gentlemen to evade this 
matter by their silence. If the rule was worthless, why the "sound and 
fury " of last session ? If valuable, for what consideration did they sur- 
render it, except that just stated? They must take one horn of the 
dilemma. They cannot escape from it. 

Ah ! I beg pardon, Mr. Chairman; there is still a third mode by M'hich 
a part of these gentlemen may get out of this difficulty. Some of them 
may perhaps excuse themselves by saying, if they had grumbled about this 
matter they might have been expelled from the Democratic part}^, and 
thus lost all share of the spoils to be distributed from and after the fourth 
of March next. Taking this view of the case, sir, 1 frankly admit that 
these gentlemen deserve the sympathy of this House and of the country. 
Their fate, in being compelled to make such a submission, is peculiarly 
hard, when it is remembered from what quarter the principle of this rule 
was originally derived. Mr. Senator Benton did great injustice to John 
C. Calhoun, when he said, if common rumor be true, that the same John 
C. Calhoun, so far from being a statesman, had " never invented even a 
Jmmhtig.'''' The fact cannot be disputed that John C. Calhoun was the 
first to take " the very highest ground for the South;" the prime origin- 



* It is due to the Speaker to state that he declared subsequently that he had not 
assigned to Mr. Leavitt, the Abolition reporter, any seat in the Hall, but inasmuch 
as there were a great number of applicants for reporter's seats, he had not yet com 
pleted the arrangements and allotted the seats among them; and, until his assign- 
ment had been completed, his orders had been not to prevent any reporter from 
entering the Hall, and occupying temporarily one of the seats. The rule of the 
House, No. 19, is in the following words: "No person shall be allowed the privi- 
lege of the Hall under the character of stenographer without a written permission 
from the Speaker, specifying the part of the Hall assigned to him, and no reporter 
or stenographer shall be admitted under the rules of the House, unless such reporter 
or stenographer shall state in writing for what paper or papers he is employed to 
report." As this rule can only be changed by the House itself, and as the reporter 
in question occupied the seat for some weeks, I presumed, in common with other 
members who remarked on the transaction, that he remained by express permission 
of the Speaker, and not that there had been a suspension of a standing rule of the 
House by the Speaker for so long a period. 



(176) 

ator of the policy of objecting to the reception of petitions, of which the 
twenty-fifth rule is parcel. Hard, then, is the necessity which compels 
the peculiar followers of that gentleman to make a burnt offering of the 
first and only olfspring of their idol. Considering, however, the object 
for which the sacrifice was made, it is to be hoped that they will derive 
as much consolation as did Capt. Dalgetty, who, when mourning the loss 
of his old war-horse on a battle-field, remembered that he could convert 
the hide of the dead animal into a pair of breeches. John C. Calhoun's 
only humbug converted into breeches for his followers !* 

Judging from the action of the House on this subject, what is to 
become of the repeal of the tariff"? I can tell you, sir. If James K. 
Polk will give to a few individuals that I could name such offices as they 
desire, he will thereby effect such a modification of the tariff" as to ren- 
der it acceptable in the main to the chivalric majority of the State of 
Soutli Carolina. Should these persons, however, fail to get such a por- 
tion of the spoils as they consider their due, viz : the lion's share, then 
the tariff' will be found so intolerably oppressive that human nature 
cannot bear it, and must be nullified. Be not deceived, sir, by all the 
declamation which we hear fi'om time to time ; for all this is merely 
thrown out to frighten Mr. Polk and his Northern friends into a good 
compromise with respect to the distribution of the offices. Can this be 
accomplished without beggaring the other sections of the party ? There are 
not places enough in the gift of the Executive to satisfy the countless 
thousands of greedy office seekers. This consideration forces upon my 
mind the great danger which awaits your party, and, as a frank benevo- 
lent Whig, 1 warn you of it. 

Sir, it is a common remark that the members of this so-called Demo- 
cratic party, however they may take opposite sides on measures of 
policy, never split in their votes, but always make a common struggle 
on election day. This is owing to the fact which I had occasion to state 
at the last session, that this party is " held together solely by the cohes- 
ive power of public plunder;" and, therefore, whenever they are making 
a struggle to get into power, it is a part of their general system of tac- 
tics that each segment of the party should adopt that side of any ques- 
tion that is strongest at home, and thereby increase their chance of car- 
rying the election. Though not yet generally known throughout the 
country, yet the matter is so well understood here that it seldom excites 
a remark, though every week furnishes conclusive evidence on the point.. 
For example : A gentleman from Pennsylvania some time since charged 
the Whigs with being less friendly to protective tariff" than the Demo- 
crats.^ Immediately after him rose a gentleman from Alabama, who 
declaimed furiously against the oppression of the tariff of 1842, taking 
no notice of the gentleman who was up just before him, but assailing 



* A story is told, by Paulding, I think, of an individual who applied to Mr. Van 
Buren for the office of Secretary of State, but was told that it had already been 
promised to another. He then continued asking for various offices, in a descending 
scale, until he came to the lowest, and was told that the office in each instance had 
been already promised to some one else. "Then, sir," said he to the President, "as 
I am in a very needy condition, could you not give me a pair of old breeches ?" 



<^ 



(177) 

furiously some unlucky Whig who may have taken part in the debate. 
Says the gentleman from Pennsylvania: "Mr. Clay and the Whigs are 
for reducing the present duties on iron and coal, and prostrating the 
great interests of Pennsylvania." The gentleman from Alabama shouts 
aloud: "The duties on iron and coal, imposed by the present Whig 
tariff, are so oppressive that they cannot be borne, but shall be resisted." 
So far, however, are these gentlemen from finding fault with each 
other, that each of them, by his manner at least, seems to say to the 
other: " Godspeed you, brother ; you are working bravely for Democ- 
racy." As the speech of each of them is intended for home consump- 
tion, it contains no allusion to the remarks of the other; and, by conse- 
quence, the constituent at the North sees from the speech of his repre- 
sentative that the Whig party is opposed to the protection of home indus- 
try, and to the existing tariff; while the planter of the South is driven to 
madness by learning, in a similar manner, how much he is oppressed by 
the present Whig tariff. However, therefore, the members of this party 
may differ about measures^ they do not split in their votes on election 
day, and of course they act together as long as they are out of power. 
But, sir, very different is their condition when in power. I have already 
indicated that they are held together solely by the desire of ofhce, 
and as there are not in the Government places enough for all, tliere will 
soon be a real quarrel, and the disappointed will vote against you. The 
only connecting tie being dissolved, the party will go to pieces. This, 
sir, is the rock on which you are destined to split. Though a political 
adversary, I warn you of the danger; but I frankly admit, sir, that I 
do not believe you will be able to prolit by my advice. 

When the sub-Treasury bill was under consideration some time since, 
it will be remembered that in the very short debate which was allowed 
on it, a very wide range was taken by some of the speakers. As I was 
not on that occasion permitted to occupy the floor, I may, I trust without 
impropriety, advert to some things that were said then. I do not pro- 
pose, however, to discuss the mei-its of that measure. It was brought in 
by the committee at the last session and laid upon our tables, and though 
I in common with other Whigs called upon the majority to take it up 
at once, and charged them with holding it back until after the Presi- 
dential election, in order to deceive the country as to their real inten- 
tions, yet it all availed nothing, and it was permitted to sleep quietly on 
our tables till the close of that session. And when, during the past 
summer, we charged the party with designing to ])ass this measure again 
as soon as they had the power to effect it, yet it was, as if by common 
consent, stoutly denied by their partisans all over the country. They 
aftirmed that this measure, having been condemned by the American 
people in 1840, had been abandoned, and, as a proof if it, referred to 
the fact that, with an immense majority in the House, the party refused 
to pass it. Now, however, the election being over, just as 1 had occasion 
to predict perhaps fifty times in the political debates of the past year, this 
very bill is taken up before any other matter of importance, and in a few 
hours forced through the House, and passed under the gag of tiie pre- 
vious question. It is proclaimed that the people have decided in its 
favor at the late election ; and we are told, with that insolence which 
the large majority here has inspired, that we Whigs ought to sit mute 
23 ' 



(178) 

and make no objection to its passage. So far is it from being true that 
the people, by their late vote, have decided in its favor, I venture to 
affirm that if the party had dared to pass it last spring, and thus directly 
made an issue on it, the result of the election would have been different. 
The country nnderstands this matter too well. It is known to be a 
measure winch will place in the hands of the President the money power 
of the country, and which would, in the progress of a few years, convert 
the government into a practical despotism. 

I propose now, Mr. Chairman, to follow the example of 'some of the 
debaters who have discussed the issues involved in the late election, and 
the effect of the popular verdict. At the termination of the late session- 
of Congress, when I left this city, though I was sanguine as to the gene- 
ral result, I knew that we were to be hardly pressed at the South. 
James K. Polk, the nominee of our opponents, was understood to be, 
and had always been, opposed to any other than a mere revenue tariff", and 
was avowedly in favor of the immediate annexation of Texas. Though I 
knew that the position of the Whig party was right on both these questions 
yet, inasmuch as it had formerly been tlie custom of Southern politicians in 
the main to denounce all tarifiis, and the policy even of incidental protection 
had rarely been advocated, I feared that the time intervening before the 
election was too short to enable us fully to enlighten the public mind 
with respect to the character of the act of 18-12, and our position in re- 
lation to- its policy. 

There was also in many quarters of the Southern part of the Union, a 
strong feeling in favor of the annexation of Texas, and I also apprehended 
that there would hardly be time enough for the people to become fully 
acquainted with the terms of the proposed annexation, and to under- 
stand clearly the position of the Presidential candidates with respect to 
the question. Though we Whigs of the South knew that it had fallen 
to our lot to defend the point of greatest pressure, yet we went into the 
contest with a determination and a spirit worthy of the noble canse in 
which we were engaged, and which, but for causes that we had no reason 
to anticipate would have afforded a success fully equal to all our hopes. 

At the North this state of things was reversed. Our candidate occu- 
pied the side of these questions that was most popular with both parties 
in that region, and we had a riglit to anticipate a gain in that quarter, 
equal at least to any loss that might be sustained with us. Nor did I 
feel any serious doubts as to the result until we saw the developments of 
the month of September. Then it was that the extraordinary spectacle 
was presented to the world of a convention of the so-called Democratic 
party in the State of New York, which openly, and with a degree ot 
impudence till tlien unseen, in solemn form repudiated the leading prin- 
ciples avowed in their National Convention, and at the same time 
declared their determination to support its Presidential nominee. It 
likewise nominated for the office of Governor of that State, Silas 
Wright, whose views were, on both of these great questions, directly oppo- 
site to those of James K. Polk. Mr. Polk declared himself utterly opposed 
to the tariff of 1842, and in favor of the immediate annexation of Texas, 
while Silas Wright had voted for the tariff" of 1842, and had likewise 
voted against the annexation of Texas ; and these two individuals were 
voted for on the same ticket, in ordtir that no man might be so silly in 



( 179 ) 

future as to doubt but that the Baid Democratic party was held together 
solel}^ by the U)ve of office, or, in huiguage tliat has now become chissi- 
cal, "the cohesive power of public i)hindcr." 

A similar state of things was exhibited in Pennsylvania; and I have 
heard Democratic members of this House speak laughingly, of seeing 
in that State, numberless banners with the inscription borne on them of 
"Polk, Dallas, and the Democratic Tariff of 1842." Yes, sir, and when 
the Wliigs attempted to set this matter right, they were told by the 
honest but ignorant yeomanry of that State, that they could not believe 
that Mr. Polk was opposed to the tariff, because they had been assured 
by their leaders, the men in whom they had been accustomed to confide, 
that he was much more favorable to a protective tariff' than was Mr. 
Clay. The political leaders of the party in these two States, as well as 
elsewhere at the North, humiliated themselves so far, as to come into 
the su]iport of a man who had been forced upon them by a small, and 
till then, contemned minority of their own i)arty, and whose opinions 
were directly the reverse of those which they themselves had publicly 
professed. But they did not stop here. Lest their prostitution should 
go unrewarded, and to secure as many accomplices in political crime as 
possible, they seem to have deliberately entered into a scheme of mis- 
representation and fraud. To bring to the support of a man whose prin- 
ciples, if he had any, were hostile to the views of the great mass of 
their followers, they deliberately resolved to misstate the principles of 
that man, as if they could thus turn wrong into right, and make that 
true which was false. By false declarations, steadily persevered in, they 
deluded the ignorant, who trusted to their truth. To further their con- 
spiracy, their candidate, worthy of his party, wrote in phrases indefinite, 
unmeaning, vague, ambiguous, double-faced as the responses of the old 
Delphic oracle. When inquiries from any quarter, whatever, were put 
to him which would have elicited a definite answer, he remained mute, 
and permitted the truth to be tram])led under foot. Mr. Chairman, there 
are recorded many instances of individual misrepresentation, dishonor, 
and breaciies of faith, by those who previously enjoyed the j)ublic con- 
fidence ; but, sir, the history of the world affords no other instance of a 
total destitution of a moral sense, exhibited by so large a number of 
individuals, no example of fraud and falsehood on a scale so extensive. 
To furnish materials to the active agents, there was established in this 
city a mint managed by, it is not necessary for me here to say whom, for 
it is too well known to all around. That establishment worked with 
amazing rapidity, and threw off every variety of falsehoods. To the 
North, for example, it sent infamous libels on the Wliig candidates, such 
as were supposed best calculated to array against them all the profligate 
factions there, especially the unprincipled Abolitionists; while to the 
South were directed handbills, warning the people of that section, that 
imminent danger was impending, and that, if the Whigs came into 
power, slavery would be abolished, and all the interests of the South 
utterly prostrated. These publications were thrown out purposely on 
the eve of the election, in order that they might not be contradicted. 
They were signed by no name, or the name of an unknown iiTesponsible 
person. If, therefore, one of them found its way to a region for which 
it had not been intended, its parentage was stiffly denied, and it was 



(180) 

afBrmed and certified to be a Whig forgery. For some weeks before the 
election, these handbills were scattered far and wide. I wondered at 
their numbers, for they covered the land like the locusts of Egypt. I 
have since been informed that several and perhaps all of the depart- 
ments of the government were constantly employed to aid the party in 
their distribution. One of the heads of department, I am credibly 
informed, franked them in packages weighing, in some instances, as 
much as a thousand pounds. As far as I know, however, the circulation 
of these things produced little impression in my own State, or in the 
Southern country generally. It is the custom there for men of opposite 
parties to debate political questions face to face before the people, and 
the voters thus have a better chance to ascertain the views of parties 
and of their candidates. It is true, that our adversaries sometimes 
attempted to deny Mr. Polk's views as to the sub-treasury, and other 
questions, but these denials were seldom successful. Sir, I never yet 
have met a man tliat I could not, in a day or two's debate, by continued 
question, cross-examination, and denunciation, compel to admit the truth, 
when I had documeutarj^ or other plain evidence to establish it. Provi- 
dence seems to have denied to man the power to persist in falsehood 
with the same steadiness of eye and countenance, with which truth can 
be maintained. I doubt if Talleyrand, himself, who used to saj that 
language was given to men to enable them to conceal their thoughts, 
could persevere successfully in falsehood during the whole of one of our 
Southern campaigns. 

At the North, the mode of conducting a canvass is different. The 
speakers on opposite sides seldom if ever meet each other in debate. 
The meetings being composed of one party only, the matter thrown out 
goes uncontradicted alike, whether it be truth or falsehood, and the 
members of either party adopt the views of their own speakers. To the 
uninformed, however honest they may be, the best authenticated docu- 
ment carries no more evidence of its truth, than the libel representing 
both by pictures and writing, Mr. Clay hanging the three Dutchmen, 
which was so extensively circulated in Pennsylvania. 

If this state of things continues, our constitution of government is 
virtually at an end. Our republican system is based upon the principle 
that those who exercise power here represent and carry out, under the 
constitution, the views of the people. But if the matter be so managed 
that the great mass of the voters do not and cannot ascertain the views 
of the candidates before them, the consequence follows, that those elected, 
do not in fact represent the ]")eople, and our republican form of govern- 
ment is virtually abolished. As a means of averting, to some extent at 
least, this great evil, let the practice of requiring the speakers on both 
sides to confront each other in debate, be generally adopted. To effect 
this, let there be a union of all those who desire truth to prevail, who 
wish to see our free constitution preserved in substance as well as in 
form, and who desire that the blessings of liberty should be transmitted 
to those who are to come after us. At any rate, I call upon every Whig 
to adopt this mode, publish your appointments, and challenge your 
opponents to meet you. If they fail to meet you, denounce them as 
being afraid of such investigation, because they know that the facts are 
against them. Persevere in this course, and they will be compelled by 



(181) 

public opinion, jes, by their own followers, to meet yon ; for there are 
in the hearts of our countr^nnen of all parties, a desire to know the 
truth, and a generous love of fair play. 

I am now brought, Mr. Chairman, to the consideration of another 
most important matter in connection with the late presidential canvass. 
After the nominations in the spring, the Whig pai-ty held man}^ lai-ge 
political meetings, at which there was much able and eloquent discussion. 
Our orators went through many parts of tlie country, and debated most 
successfully, the principles of the two parties. All this was well, for it 
secured to our standard a vast majority of the intelligent and reflecting 
portion of the Union. But this alone, as the event has shown, was not 
suiflcient. Resting on the goodness of our cause, the soundness of the 
principles advocated by us, and the belief that the wisdom of our 
measures would bring a majority of the voters to the support of our can- 
didate, we neglected that complete organization in detail which was 
necessary to prevent undue influence and imposition on the voters at the 
election. 

Since the beginning of the world, regularly trained soldiers have 
always been able to beat raw militia. Hence, when any one nation 
keeps up a well-disciplined standing army, the neighboring States must 
adopt a similar system or be overpowered. This truth, so universally 
admitted with respect to military affairs, has not been generally under- 
stood in its bearings on elections in a country like ours. In eveiy part of 
the Union, there are some individuals whose opinions are not so firmly 
fixed but what they may be changed at or about the time of the election. 
This may be brought about in various ways. A man, naturally irreso- 
lute or unstable in his purposes, may be persuaded ; one not informed 
as to the principles and conduct of the candidates, may be deceived 
by artful misrepresentation; the dishonest are. liable to be biased by 
improper influences. These classes constitute what is sometimes denomi- 
nated the floating vote, that is, a vote which is lial>le to be easily changed 
from one party to another. It is, doubtless, largest in the great cities, 
and varies considerably in different sections. But everywhere there are 
those w^ho, by persuasion, misrepresentation, fraud, or other means, may 
be induced to vote differently iVom what they intended, a short time 
previous to the election. The number of these individuals is sufllciently 
large to decide the result in all closely contested elections. Take as an 
example the great Stat« of New York in the late presidential election. 
Taking the whole State over, it will not be questioned by any one that 
there is a much larger proportion than the one hundred and seventy-fifth 
part of the voters there, whose views on political matters were not so fixed, 
as to prevent their being influenced at the time of the election. Though 
of course not unaware of this condition of things to some extent in all 
the States, yet the Whig party has in the main relied on the justness of 
its cause, and the voluntary exertions of its individual members to coun- 
teract improper influences. Our adversaries, however, have been prac- 
ticing on a very different system. They liave acquired a skill and dis- 
cipline in party tactics unknown to any other faction that has existed in 
this country. Whether this system was perfected in the State of New 
York, and brought into the administration of the Federal government 
by Mr. Van Buren, as some suppose, I shall not now stop to inquire. 



(182) 

As at present organized, the so-called Democratic party, though it allows 
the individuals composing it to profess such opinions on all measures of 
legislative policy as they may think it most advantageous to adopt, yet 
it recpiires the utnu^st fidelity in all party manoiuvres, especially in elec- 
tions. To stimulate this feeling, the ofiices are promised to those, who 
may have rendered the party the most efficient service. Each member 
is required to stand by his [>arty at all hazards, though in so doing he 
should act in opposition to the best interests of the country. In turn, 
the party will stand by him, and protect him from the consequences of 
any crime he may commit, provided it be done for the benefit of the 
party. A thousand instances might be given, to establish the truth of 
this conclusion. I will refer, however, only to a single one, of recent 
occurrence in my own State. When our Legislature, novtr in session, assem- 
bled, there was a tie between the parties in the Senate. Each party was 
of course desirous of electing a Speaker and other officers. According to 
the old and well-settled law of tlie State, each member elect was bound to 
produce, before his qualification, the certificate of tlie sheriff of his 
having been elected. But one who claimed to be a Democratic senator, 
was not provided with such a certificate, and the fact became known 
through the indiscretion of- those friends, that he consulted in his 
dilemma. When the time came for the opening of the first day's session, 
this individual much to the surprise of his political adversaries at least, 
presented a forged certificate in the usual form, was qualified as a Sena- 
tor, and took his seat. It was five days before the body was organized 
by the election of a Speaker, &c. A committee was raised to investi- 
gate the aflair. They, upon evidence of the most conclusive character, 
reported that tlie certificate had been forged either by the Senator or by 
his procurement, and knowingly used by him to impose on the Senate, 
and recommended his expulsion. The vote of the Senate was unani- 
mous on the first resolution, declaring the certificate a forgery ; but 
upon the second, declaring that he ought to be expelled, every member of 
his party voted in the negative, thereby saying that, though he had 
committed forgery, he was not in their opinion unworthy to sit with 
them. After his expulsion by the casting vote of the Whig Speaker, his 
party, taking advantage of the accidental absence of two or three Whigs, 
within a few daj^s moved and carried a proposition to strike from the 
journals the report, proceedings, &c., that had taken place, with a view 
of inserting in their stead the speech of Jiis counsel made in his defence 
at the l)ar of the Senate. A stranger would perhaps be surprised to 
learn that many of these individuals, in the relations of private life, are 
esteemed honest and honorable men. Nothing could show more con- 
clusively their devotion to their party, than that they should be thus 
able to overcome their natural aversion to crime, and thus endeavor to 
countenance and protect the criminal, because that crime had been com- 
mitted for the benefit of the party. Sir, it gives me no pleasure to refer 
to this occurrence. We formerly flattered ourselves that however mis- 
chievous locofocoism might become in other sections, there was in North 
Carolina and other parts of the South a regard for public opinion, and 
a feeling of personal honor among its leading members, which would 
keep it somewhat in the bounds of decency. But it is a tree which bears 
the same fruit in every climate. Its late exhibitions will arouse the 



( 183 ) 

indignation of the virtuous yeomanry of the Old North State. But, sir, 
I shall pursue this illustration no further. I wished simply to call your 
attention to the nature of the bond which connects this so-called Demo- 
cratic party. To show the extent to which its organization has been 
carried, I refer you to the secret "Circular from the Executive Commit- 
tee of the Democratic Association of Washington city," issued last Sep- 
tember. I would read the whole of it, if I did not knoM' that its contents 
were well understood by most, if not all on this floor. Its first four sec- 
tions as you know, provide for the organization of a Democratic Associa- 
tion, by whatever name they choose to call it, in every " county, city, 
ward, town, and village throughout the Union ;" the appointment of 
executive committees, captains, lieutenants, and Democratic minute- 
men — that is, " men who are willing to serve the Democracy at a min- 
ute's warning." Their first class of duties is prescribed in sections five 
and six, in the following words — 

"5. That the captain and lieutenants, with such miiuite-men as may be de- 
tailed for the service, proceed forthwith to make out two lists— one of all 
voters in the company bounds, designating the Democrats, Whigs and the 
Abolitionists, putting into a separate colunm, headed "doubtful," the names 
of all Aviiose opinions are unknown, and all of every party who are easily 
managed in their opinion or conduct; the other list to embrace all minors 
approaching maturity, and all men not entitled to vote." 

"6. That a copy of these lists be furnished to the Executive Committee 
of each Democratic Associatiou within the election precinct." 

Section seven directs these officers and minute-men to circulate all 
papers that may influence the doubtful men. Section eight makes it 
the duty of the minute men to get all the doubtful men to their meet- 
ings. Sections nine, ten, eleven and twelve, are as follows: 

"9. That the captain of the Democratic minute-men appoint a time and 
place of rendezvous, early on the first morning of election, and detail minute- 
men to wait upon, and if possible bring with them every doubtful voter 
within the company bounds." 

" 10. That, if practicable, some suitable refreshments be provided for the 
company at the place of rendezvous, and their ardor kindled by patriotic 
conversation; that each man be furnished with a ticket with the names of 
the Democratic electors; that it be impressed upon them that the first great 
business of the day is to give their votes; that they are expected and 
required to march to the polls in a body, and in perfect silence; to avail 
themselves of the first opportunity to vote, and ?iever separate until every 
member of the company has voted. 

"11. That if any Democrat be absent from the rendezvous, the captain 
despatch a minute-man forthwith to bring him to the polls. 

"12. That the captains and lieutenants provide beforehand means for con- 
veyance for such Democrats as cannot otherwise get to the polls." 

Without going further with this matter, Mr. Chairman, I have read 
enough to afl'ord an accurate idea of this system of organization. That 
it would be most eff'ective in practice is obvious, when it is remem- 
bered that there are in every country some who, from indecision of 
character, may be persuaded— some who, from honest credulity and 



( 184 ) 

want of political knowledge, can be imposed upon by artfully-framed 
documents or verbal misrepresentation ; while others may be over- 
come by the influence of what are called "refreshments" or other 
means. This or some similar plan of organization was adopted in 
many parts of the country. In the State of Tennessee, as I have been in- 
formed, by what I regard as first-rate democratic authority, the follow- 
ing was the mode relied on : lliere are about fifteen hundred civil 
districts in that State, in each of which there is a precinct for voting. 
In each one of these districts the Democratic party selected five indi- 
viduals, who were, by their combined exertions prior to and on the 
election day, to endeavor to change two voters in each district, which 
in the whole State would amount to three thousand, and, taken from 
the Whig to the Democratic side, would make a difference of six thou- 
sand in the result. By this means they hoped to overcome the major- 
ity of four thousand which had been cast against Mr. Polk the year 
previous. That this scheme failed is solely owing to the fact that in 
that State the Whigs were more zealous, more active, and better or- 
ganized than they were in the other States. Nothing given such con- 
fidence and spirit to an individual, as the knowledge that his efforts 
will be seconded and sustained by all of the members of his party. It 
is a similar thought which gives courage to a soldier going into battle 
in the ranks of veterans, whom he knows and confides in, that he 
would not feel in the midst of a body of raw militia. 

The leading members of the Democratic party, being in the late 
canvass well aware that the system of Whig policy was approved by a 
majority of the people of the Union, and that their nominee had also 
a vast personal superiority in the estimation of every body over Mr, 
Polk, felt that the issue, if determined with respect either to measures 
or men, would be decided against them. They therefore called into 
exercise to the fullest extent their system of party organization, to ob- 
tain as many votes as possible for their candidate, and showed them- 
selves devoid of all scruples as to the mode in which these votes were 
to be procured. 

But, Mr. Chairman, our opponents did not content themselves with 
merely obtaining the votes of individuals. They also courted and 
won over all the various smaller factions of the Union. It is the 
natural tendency of these in every country to array themselves against 
the strongest party. The Whig party was, as all will concede, the 
stronger, and it stood firmly on well known and fixed principles. 
With these principles none of the factions of the country harmonized. 
But the Democratic party avowedly stood on no general system of 
principles with respect to the administration of the government. It 
contained in its body men who professed opposite opinions on every 
political question. Its broad and catholic spirit could receive in its 
bosom the members of every faction without obliging them to sacrifice 
or modify any of their professed opinions. In short, it was a fit recep- 
tacle for the fragments of all factions, and it wooed them in the 
manner best calculated to win. 

The Abolition party had nominated as its candidate for the Presi- 
dency James G. Birney ; but the Democratic party likewise afterwards 



(185) 

nominated him for the Legislature of Michigan. He accepted this 
nomination, and by that means, or perhaps by more solid appliances, 
he M^as induced to use his influence with his party in behalf of Mr. 
Polk. In his published letters before the election, I allude not to his 
spurious, but the genuine ones, he declared that, though opposed both 
to Mr. Clay and Mr. Polk, yet he much more deprecated the election 
of Mr. Clay, because, being a man of greatly superior abilities, he was 
always able to lead his party, and would do much more to retard and 
overthrow abolition principles than Mr. Polk, whom he spoke of as a 
man of no talent, incapable of controlling his party, and powerless as 
against abolition. Mr. Speaker, when I first read these letters, I saw that 
they were so ingeniously framed that they would have the desired effect 
with the Abolition party. Nay, sir; tliey take the precise view of the 
matter which a sagacious, sincere Ai3olitionist would. Nothing surely 
could be more fatal to the progress, and even existence of that faction, 
than the administration of a man of the lofty patriotism, splendid 
abilities, vast personal popularity, moderation and firmness of Henry 
Clay; giving, as such an administration would do, that confidence, 
repose, and prosperity which the country so much needs. On the con- 
trary, all little factions vegetate and thrive under the weak, vacillating 
administration of a feeble man. Rightfully or wrongfully, however, 
as it may be deemed, it is certain that these views of Birney, and like 
efforts on the part of the Democratic party, had the desired efl'ect on 
the mass of the Abolition party. The States of New York, Penn- 
sylvania, and perhaps others, were carried for Mr. Polk, and, as our 
candid political adversaries admit, the Abolitionists have made the 
President. 

So strong, however, sir, was the Whig party in the country that 
even this manoeuvre would not have defeated us had it not been for 
other similar artifices. Nearly one hundred thousand foreigners are 
estimated to arrive annually m the United States; of this number a 
very large proportion are Roman Catholics. By means, which time 
does not permit me to recount, but the most insidious and unjustifiable, 
the Democratic party succeeded in inducing them to band themselves 
together and rally to the support of Mr. Polk. Some of them avowed 
their preference for him because his free trade policy was more favor- 
able to the interest of the mother countries from which they came than 
was Mr. Clay's. Others openly proclaimed on their banners that they 
would not be ruled by Americans. As evidence of the sort of feeling 
which has been inculcated into the minds of the most ignorant of 
them, I may be pardoned for mentioning a little incident that occurred 
in the room of a friend to whom I chanced to be making a visit. 
While making his fire, the Irish porter inquired when Mr. Polk would 
come on to the city. " I am told," he added, "that he is a great friend 
to us poor foreigners; we elected him, and we can do most anything 
when we all try." Sir, had the foreign Catholics been divided in the 
late eleetion, as other sects and classes general!}^ were, Mr. Clay would 
have carried by a large majority the State of New York, as also the 
States of Pennsylvania and Louisiana, and probably some others in 
the Northwest. Not only did we have to contend against the influence 
24 



(186) 

of foreigners here, but British gold was openly and profusely used to 
promote Mr. Polk's election, professedly with a view of breaking down 
the tariff and promoting the sale of their manufactures in this country. 
All the world may interfere in our domestic matters. With one hand 
Great Britain stimulates the abolitionism of the North, with a view of 
desolating the South, or forcing a dissolution of the Union; and with 
the other, under the influence of motives equally selfish, she seeks 
to array the planting and farming interest of the country against the 
tariff, and thereby break down the manufacturing establishments of 
the North. And we, as a nation, sit stupidly quiet while she foments 
for her own advantage our domestic dissensions. 

Our political opponents, likewise, derived accidentally great ad- 
vantage from the official patronage of the present administration. 
Usually the opponents of the acting President have, as a counterpoise 
to his direct influence, the advantage of holding his administration 
responsible before the country for its errors or crimes. But in the 
present instance the acts of the executive, though in heart and soul com- 
pletely identified with the Democratic party, because he had not been 
elected by them, were, whenever it suited their purpose, disavowed. 
He thus occupied a position of seeming neutrality between the two 
parties, and was able to turn to account the power in his hands. He 
accordingly exerted to the utmost the power which he possessed over 
them, going even to the odious extent practiced in Mr. Van Buren's 
time, of compelling them, on pain of dismissal from office, to con- 
tribute a part of their salaries to create a fund to be used in favor of 
Mr. Polk's election. At three several assessments of one per cent, each 
of salary in the custom house, $15,000 is said to have been raised. 
One of the officers there, John Orser, is said to have presented to the 
Empire Club several hundred hickory clubs, to enable them to beat 
away from the polls the Whig voters, for which laudable act he seems 
to have received a vote of thanks from said Empire Club. 

To ascertain the extent of this influence on the whole country is not 
easy, but the number of office-holders in the State of New York alone 
is such as to account for a greater number of votes than Mr. Polk's 
actual majority there. 

From Mr. Clay's character, political experience, and associations, it 
was known that his selections for office would be made from the best 
men in the country. All of the old defaulters, therefore, all mere needy 
adventurers, without character to support their claims for office, 
having nothing to hope from him, naturally arrayed themselves on 
the other side. 

Without doubt, too, they are right, to some extent, who attach weight 
to another influence, not properlj^ political, to-wit: that the gambling 
portion of the community finding, at the beginning of the canvass, 
that they could not get persons to bet against Mr. Clay, did so them- 
selves, with large odds in their favor, and afterwards devoted a portion 
of the many millions staked to effect the result desired by them. 

Yet, with all the acquisitions and advantages which I have been 
recounting, our adversaries were too prudent to rest secure. They 
knew that the constitution had provided no mode by which the fair- 



( 187 ) 

ness of a presidential election could be contested; no means of purging 
the polls of illegal votes. If a vote were received by the inspectors of 
the election at each precinct, and by them returned, it mattered not 
whether the person professing to give it were qualified to vote or not 
at that place. They, therefore, by means of the system of organization 
already described, deliberately formed a widely extended plan for the 
purpose of procuring a sufficient number of illegal votes to carry States 
enough to secure the election of Mr. Polk. Their first demonstration 
seems to have been made in the city of Baltimore in the October elec- 
tion. There it was that they gave a vote so much larger than was 
ever polled at any preceding election, as to satisfy all persons that fraud 
had been practiced. Investigations since then have made it manifest 
that the increased vote was owing, not only to the fact that many 
persons voted not authorized at all to vote there, but that likewise 
those qualified had, in some instances, voted two, three, or more times 
at different precincts in the city. About fifty persons have already 
been convicted and sentenced to punishment for this offence by the 
courts, not one of whom is a Whig, though they have been pardoned 
from time to time by the Democratic Governor there. The fraud here 
was but the precursor of what followed. 

The great State of New York claims the first notice. During the 
past year there were naturalized there not less than seven thousand 
foreigners. This was effected entirely by the Democratic party, the 
Whigs having no office provided for that purpose, because as I 
learn, there is not one of these foreigners out of fifty who will vote the 
Whig ticket. Of this large number a great proportion, not having 
been five years in the country, could not be legally naturalized, and 
their votes, therefore, when given, were illegal. 

Men who had not been one month in the country from the peniten- 
tiaries of Europe, unacquainted even with the language in which they 
were sworn, voted for what they knew not. 

But the principal frauds were practised by what is called double 
voting. The city of New York was the great theatre where this was 
consummated. As the Empire Club bore such a prominent part in 
these transactions, I must devote a remark or two to it. It was 
organized in July last, and it consisted of gamblers, pickpockets, 
droppers, thimble-riggers, burners, and the like, and its association 
seems to have been then mainly for the purpose of carrying on 
successfully these and similar trades. Most of its members had been 
repeatedly indicted for crimes. Its general character, however, may be 
sufficiently inferred from that of some of its officers. Its president 
was Isaiah Rynders, often arrested for thimble-rigging and similar 
offences. He and Joseph Jewell, being indicted for murder fled 
from New York to New Orleans. By the by, I may here mention 
that this Jewell, who has indictments for murder in two different 
cases hanging up against him, was the standard-bearer of the Club, 
and figured as the bearer of the Texas banner in the processions. 
These worthies had not been long in New Orleans before they found 
it convenient to leave, being charged with stealing Treasury notes. 
They came to this city, and were arrested and sent back in irons by 



(188) 

order of "Captain" Tyler. I mention this circumstance to show the 
mutations of the times; for since the election this man Rynders, 
having become a great man among the Democracy, has not only diued 
with Benjamin F. Butler, when the electoral vote M^as given to Mr. 
Polk at Albany; not only has he received a complimentary ball from 
the chairman of the Democratic General Committee of the city of New 
York, but, having come on with his friend Jewell to this place for an 
office, as I am told, if the papers are to be relied on, he has been cor- 
dially received at the White House. Whether President Tyler or Presi- 
dent Rynders then remembered the ironing, is not, however, chronicled. 
But I am digressing. John J. Austin, vice-president of the club, has 
likewise pending against him an indictment for murder, and was like- 
wise implicated in the charge of stealing Treasury notes. Woolridge, 
its secretary, but recently came out of the penitentiary. William Ford, 
one of its directors, in the short interval of time which elapsed 
between the publication of a notice of one of its processions and the 
arrival of the day of parade, was indicted by the grand jury in seven 
cases, rape and burglary being among the offences. Being put in the 
Tombs, he unfortunately lost the opportunity of figuring on that occa- 
sion. Soon after tried and convicted of the first named crime, he was 
sent to the penitentiary, but, his services being valuable to the party, 
he was immediately pardoned and turned out by. his Democratic 
excellency. Governor Bouck. I may remark, too, that this official 
dignitary, a short time before the election, restored to their political 
rights all the criminals in the State, and pardoned a great number 
who were in the penitentiary. This Empire Club, constituted as I 
have related, for some time devoted its energies to the prosecution of 
the laudable objects for which it had been originally organized. 
Several weeks, however, before the election, the Democratic leaders 
thought it could be effectively employed in the political canvass, and 
they thereupon took its members into pa3^ These gentry being fur- 
nished with money thus by other means, abandoned for a time 
their peculiar avocations, and some of the neutral papers of the city 
made the subject of remark, the disappearance of these particular 
classes of crime. Their numbers rapidly increased from one or two 
hundred to not less than eight hundred ; in fact they boasted that they 
had three thousand men enrolled. This Club, with other members of 
the Democratic party, perfected the most extensive system of fraudu- 
lent voting ever known. Sir, in what I have been stating, and what I 
am now about to state, I speak from information derived in part from 
public sources, but mainly from private ones; sources, however, on 
which I fully rely. I have taken pains to get accurate information. 
If there be error in any of my statements, which I am not prepared to 
admit, I desire to be contradicted. One of my objects is to piovoke 
investigation into this matter. If anything which I can say or do 
here should induce this House to order an investigation into this 
whole transaction, I shall think I have done the country much service. 
Let gentlemen meet me on this ground. / In the city of New York, 
/there are more than seventy places at which votes are given in. I 
understand, sir, that one prominent feature of this plan was, that in 



(189) 

each of the seventeen wards into which the city is divided, there were 
one hundred and twenty picked men, each of whom was to leave his 
own ward and go to one where he was least known, on the evening before 
the election. Staying one night there enabled him to make oath that 
he resided in that ward, and he was permitted to vote there. He then 
returned to his own ward, and voted there without being questioned. 
But these two thousand and forty persons, however, formed but a part 
of those who voted more than once. From the information which I 
have received, I think that an investigation will show that there were 
companies of men who voted, in some instances, as much as sixteefrf 
times each. It w^as the calculation of the managers to give fourteen 
thousand illegal votes in the city, and they admit that they got in 
'eleven thousand. A portion of these votes were excluded at some of 
the boxes, by the Whigs requiring them to state, on oath, if they had 
not already voted. This being an unusual question, offended many of 
them, and they retired with dignified disdain. The workingman's 
Advocate, a Democratic paper of the city, has admitted that the partj^ 
agreed to give five dollars for every vote after the first one, which any 
individual could get in. Many of tlie gamblers predicted what occurred 
afterwards with wonderful accuracy. One of them, who happened to 
be a Whig, informed a prominent individual in the city, from whom 
I received the statement, long before the election, of the plan, and 
likewise notified him that on a future day, before the election, however, 
this matter would be published in a Democratic paper, (the Plehian^ 
I think,) and charged on the Whigs as their plan, so as to divert sus- 
picion ; and, in the event of discovery b}' the Whig press, to anticipate 
such charge, and thus break its force. When the day came on, as 
predicted, the publication occurred in the Plehian. 

There is said to have been an incident, of no great consequence in 
itself, which for a particular reason is worth a notice. I understand 
that the North Carolina line-of-battle ship was moored at the Brook- 
lyn wharf, and it had been arranged that the men on board of her 
were to go ashore and vote for the gentleman who represents on this 
floor the Brooklyn district; and their votes, if received by him, would 
have been sufficient to elect him. But on the morninj^of the election, 
by some singular freak of that legerdemain which was practised on so j 
extensive a scale that day, these men were in a body spirited across " 
the river into the city, and voted mostly in the 7th ward, but partly in 
the 6th and 11th, for the Democratic member there, (I mean the only 
one of the present city delegation returned, Mr. Maclay.) These votes 
were just enough to save him. Now, I have no doubt but that the 
gentleman from Brooklyn. (Mr. Murphy) though he was overthrown 
by having the staff on which he was about to lean thus suddenly 
jerked from under him, by a brother Democrat, has public spirit and 
party devotion enough to be quite as well satisfied by a result which 
gives the party a member, as if he had been himself the successful 
individual. But the o'jject I had in view, sir, in alluding to this inci- 
cent, is to ascertain what is the standard of party morals as it respects 
the members themselves. What is their mode of dealing with Whigs 
I understand very well ; but I had supposed, according to the old 



(190) 

proverb, that among its members there was honor in every profession. 
Will not some one enlighten the country as to this part of their code? 

Sir, you remember that when the Whigs were in power, they passed 
a registry law that would have prevented most of these enormous 
frauds, but it was repealed by the Democratic party, and we see the 
fruits of that repeal. From the best information I can obtain, I am 
full}^ satisfied, that under the existing laws, provided by the Demo- 
cratic party of that State, frauds enough can be perpetrated in the city 
alone, to determine the vote of that great State — in fact, I may say, 
the result of the Presidential election; for it will, perhaps, generally 
be close enough for its thirt3'-six electoral votes to decide the matter. 

But it was not in the cit}^ alone that these things were done. Similar 
frauds were practised at Albany, by voters, some of whom were even* 
carried from Philadelphia, it is said. Even in the interior, there are 
facts which furnish strong evidence of illegal voting. I should like 
for the gentleman (Mr. Preston King) who represents the district in 
which is St. Lawrence, (Mr. Wright's county, I think,) to inform us 
how it happened that that county gave sixteen hundred and twenty- 
seven votes more than it did at any preceding election? The Whig 
vote is stronger than it was when we carried the county, and yet we 
are beaten by about fifteen hundred. How comes it that that county 
has given nearly two thousand more votes than some with about the 
same population? 

It is charged and believed by the Whigs, that a number of persons 
who had already voted elsewhere, were run across the line into that 
county and voted a second time, and that similar fraud was practiced 
in Jeffersoii, an adjoining county. Our friends believe, that in those 
two counties there were given some thirteen hundred illegal votes in 
that way. That the State of New York gave Henry Clay a majority 
of her legal votes cannot be doubted. Similar frauds were practiced 
in the State of Pennsylvania, with the like result, as I could show, if 
I had time to go into the details. We lost Louisiana in the same way. 
At the precinct in the parish of Plaquemines there were given eleven 
hundred votes, being seven hundred votes more than were ever given 
before at an election ; a vote larger, I believe, than its whole popula- 
tion at the last census, including women and children. This case is 
so extraordinary as to require explanation. If this excess of votes 
above the usual amount were illegal, as I have no doubt they were, 
then their exclusion, to say nothing of frauds committed elsewhere, 
would have given Mr. Clay the vote of that State. Even in Georgia 
we have strong reason to believe that we were defeated by fraud'. In 
that State, I understand, that voters under sixty years of age pay by 
law a poll-tax ; all over that age, who possess property, are likewise 
obliged to pay a tax; so that the tax books kept and returned would 
have given all the voters except the paupers above sixty. Taking 
these books as a guide, there were 15,944' more votes than there appear 
to be voters. ^ But the census shows that the number of males above 
sixty is a little more than three per cent, of the population. Deduct- 
ing four per cent, for these, there would still remain 9,502 votes that 
cannot be accounted for. Most of this excess occurs in the Democratic 



(191) 

counties. As an example, I will read an extract from a highly respect- 
able journal published in that State — the Milledgeville Journal : 

"More Facts conxected with the aeove. — Tlie counties of Forsyth, 
Lumpkin, Habersham, and Franklin, are all nearly m a line connected with 
each other. Habersham joins Franklin, Lumpkin joins Habersham, and 
Forsyth joins Lumpkin. These four counties return to the Comptroller Gen- 
eral's Office 3,080 voters. Add to this four per cent, (which is a large esti- 
mate) for men over sixty years of age, and not liable to be returned, but 
authorized to vote, and there would be 3,203 voters. At the late election, 
the same counties ^^\Q My. Polk 4,014, and Mr. Clay 1,821 — in all 5,835 
votes, and a majority for Polk of 2,193. Deduct from the aggregate vote 
of 5,835, 3,203, the number of voters returned on the tax book, and men over 
age, and it will be seen that there are 2,632 voters of ichich no account is or 
can he given, and wrio are ^stot legally entitled to vote ! 

" But let us pursue this line a little further. Madison and Elbert join Frank- 
lin, Lincoln joins Elbert, and Columbia joins Lincoln, These four counties re- 
turn to the Comptroller General's Office 2,986 voters. Add to this, as above, 
four per cent, for men over age, and there would be 3,105 voters. At the 
late election these same counties gave Mr. Clay 2,124, and Mr. Polk 999 — in 
all 3,123 voters; and a majority for Clay of 1,125. Take the voters returned 
by the Tax Receiver with the per cent, for men over 60, and the votes given, 
and it will be seen, that while ihe^/fr^'^/o.'ffr counties have given two thousand 
six hundred and thirty-two votes viore than can be accounted for, by the 
same information and estimate, the last four have only given eighteen more 
than they are entitled to. Elbert county, which gave 813 out of 1,125 ma- 
jority for Clay, and which gave the largest majority of any county in the 
State, voted only thirty-seven more than is returned on the tax book; add 
the fouV per cent, for men over age, audit will be seen that she voted five 
less than she was entitled to. 

" The last mentioned counties are Whig counties — the first are Democratic 
— which makes the faii-est sliowing ? No one can hesitate in his answer. 
Neither shall w^e hesitate to say that, in our opinion, Hei^rt Clat has re- 
ceived a majority of the legal votes of the State of Georgia." 

If this result was produced by the voting of men under age, or other 
frauds in the Democratic counties, it is sufficient, without looking any 
further, to account for our defeat in that State, for the majority against 
us was only two thousand. 

The four States of New York, Pennsjdvania, Louisiana, and Georgia, 
give eighty-eight electoral votes. Added to Mr. Clay's vote of one 
hundred and five, and he w^ould have one hundred and ninety-three 
, votes, wdiile James K. Polk would be left with only eighty-two. It is 
not strange, therefore, that our opponents should appear so moderate 
after the victory. It is not strange that they should not rejoice. No 
wonder some of them were astounded at the result. Too many of 
them know by what means this result was achieved. Did Macbeth 
rejoice when he looked at the crown and sceptre of the murdered 
Duncan? They look to the past with pain, to the future with dread. 

This examination, Mr. Speaker, brings us irresistibly to the con- 
clusion, not merely that the Whig measures of policy are approved by 
a vast majority of the people of the Union, but that, as a party, the 
Whigs are greatly the strongest in the country. So strong are they, 



( 192 ) 

that nothing but a combination of all these adverse influences could 
have defeated us. Yes, sir, if any one of several of them had been 
wanting, we should still have triumphed, and had the election been 
conducted as our form of government presupposes, that is, fairly and 
honorably, Mr. Clay's majority would have been overwhelming. 

Why then, is it, sir, since the past cannot be recalled, do I recur to 
these things? It is because I am satisfied, after a survey of the battle 
field, that in future a different result may be produced. Yes, sir, if 
we do our duty to the country, these evils may be averted, sufficiently 
at least for all practical purposes. A century may pass away before 
the country is afflicted with such another accident as the present 
executive. 

The course of the Abolition party has stripped them of much of 
their influence, by bringing them into general contempt, even at the 
North. Besides, their late movements will array a strong influence 
against them in other quarters, more than enough to counterbalance 
their strength. And if the foreign Catholics, or foreigners generally, 
continue banded together, with a viev/ of controlling the elections of 
the country, there will be aroused antagonistic feelings in the hearts of 
all true Americans, which will sweep away the party to which they 
have attached themselves. But, sir, I wish it distinctly understood, 
that I am for no Native American party ; I care not whether a man 
may have been born under the icy zone that girts the pole, or in the 
torrid clime; where the morning sun is first seen, or at the place of 
his going down, if he comes to this land, and, after the residence pre- 
scribed by law, and in the manner provided, takes an oath to support 
the constitution, and adopts with it an American heart, American 
feelings, determining then to uphold and defend the rights and 
interests of this country against all others, that man will I take by 
the hand and welcome, as an American citizen should be, by his 
fellows. I wish, however, to see no British Whig, no French Whig, 
no man, in short, who places the interest or honor of another nation 
in the scale against that of this, or who resides among us with feelings 
alien to our government or its institutions. I desire to see the des- 
tinies of this country controlled in future, as they have in the main 
been heretofore, by the great American Whig party. By that party, 
and its genuine Republican principles, am I willing to stand or fall. 

It is our duty, as far as it may be in our power, by wise legislation, 
to prevent fraudulent naturalization and illegal voting. But this 
alone, will be insufficient to ensure its success. Even though we 
should be able to see, that the combination of circumstances, to which 
our defeat was owing in the present instance, will not occur again, yet 
it must be remembered, that there will be other factions to be moved, 
and new humbugs invented. It is absolutely necessary that the Whigs 
should be completely organized as a party, not to deceive the confid- 
ing, the credulous, or the ignorant, but to protect them from imposi- 
tion ; not to practice frauds, but to prevent their commission by our 
adversaries. Had we adopted a proper system of organization, we 
should have triumphed in despite of all the adverse influences referred 
to. To accomplish this, will, I know, require more labor than many 



( 193 ) 

are willing to undergo. It was a frequent complaint of Cicero, that 
in his day that the republic was always attacked with more zeal than 
it was defended ; and, with us, it is a common boast of our adversa- 
ries, that while the Whigs are talking the}' are working. But unless 
we make up our minds to undergo the necessary exertion, our politi- 
cal system will soon become the most corrupt, and, by consequence, 
the most despotic on earth. Such a government will, by its heavy 
taxation, wars, &c., impose on us burdens much more intolerable than 
would be the effort necessary to preserve our liberties. By a proper 
system of organization, we shall alwa3'S triumph, because our princi- 
ples are tliose upon which this great republic has heretofore been suc- 
cessfull}'" and prosperously governed ; and the great mass of our popu- 
lation, being honest and patriotic, will, with pro{>er lights, sustain 
them. 

What, then, Mr. Chairman, is the prospect before us? Your party 
having come into power, your situation is altogether different from 
what it was in the late contest. You must show your hand by your 
acts, not by mere words. Why, sir, we never could have beaten Mr. 
Van Buren in 1840 if we had had only his declaration of principles 
to contend against. Your situation is doubly embarrassing from the 
duplicity which, as a party, you practiced to obtain power. As far as 
measures alone are concerned, you might, I grant, unite. But there is 
to be a struggle for pre-eminence of place, and measures will be the 
pivots on which party evolutions will turn. Ostensibly, the contest 
may be about the annexation of Texas and the tariff, because certain 
prominent men are connected in public estimation with particular 
sides of these questions. 

Inasmuch, therefore, as the action of the majority on these questions 
will be regarded as the index of the rising or sinking of the fortunes 
of particular cliques, great importance may be attached to the decis- 
ion on these questions of a party whose members are known generally 
to have a decided partiality for the strongest side. The Northern por- 
tion of the party is the more numerous, the stronger in the country, and 
by far the most skilful in party tactics. But then it was solely owing to 
the exertions of the Southern section that Mr. Van Buren was set aside 
and Mr. Polk nominated; and can he be so ungrateful as to turn his back 
on those to whom he owes his elevation ? If the Northern wing can 
get the offices, their consciences will be quieted as to the extension of 
slavery, and they will go for the annexation of Texas. But in that 
event, the tariff will become intolerable to the South, and Mr. Cal- 
houn's going out of office will be the signal for another nullification 
agitation, for which Mr. Polk has very little appetite, not being con- 
sidered remarkable for nerve in trying times. 

As I have had occasion to allude to John C. Calhoun, I take it 
upon myself to say, that, looking at his course for more than twelve 
years, with the exception of a few years after 1837, when he hoped 
from his new connection with the Democratic party that he might 
become President of all the United States — I say, sir, that his course, 
whether considered with reference to the tariff and nullification, to 
agitation on the subject of abolition and slavery, or to his mode of 
25 



( 194 ) 

managing the Texas question, is precisely that winch a man of ordi- 
nary sagacity would take who designed to effect a dissolution of the 
Union. And that such is his object can only be denied by those who 
hold him a monomaniac. A^ it was said that Julius Caesar went for- 
ward soberly and steadil}^ to the ruin of the Republic, so has John C. 
Calhoun gone on coolly and deliberately to break up the Union and 
substitute a Southern Confederacy. If his being kept in office by Mr. 
Polk should have the effect of inducing him to abandon those views, 
instead of using his official station and influence to promote them, then 
for the sake of the repose of the country, I should be pleased to see 
him retained. It is my opinion that he will be distinguished from his 
present colleagues in the Cabinet, and retained for a time, ostensibly 
to finish pending negotiations. He will then, by intrigue, or it may 
be by public opinion, be forced out, and will go into honorable exile 
at a foreign court; or retire, like Cincinnatus, to his plough, or possibly 
come back to the Senate to agitate. While he is in office, too, as many 
of his peculiar followers will be supplied with offices as may be needed 
to secure the support of the "chivalry" to the administration 

I am here reminded, sir, that some of those gentlemen have expressed 
strong hopes that they will be able to overrun and carry off with them 
the old North State; and I learn that a great effort is to be made by 
the combined energies of the party for that purpose. But I can tell 
those gentlemen that J. C. Calhoun and his clique have never had the 
ear of North Carolina. In 1832, with great unanimity, she took 
ground against them for the Union, and she is still for it. She is also 
a genuine Whig State. She was Whig in 1775, when she made the 
first declaration of independence, and her sons still in their hearts 
cherish and will maintain the principles of their fathers. Tennessee, 
too, is Whig. I saw something of the canvass there during the sum- 
mer. There were directed against her the combined influences of 
Texas, the Tariff, Jackson and Polk, backed by the powerful organiza- 
tion which I have described, and under it she has borne up all nobly." 
There is a State to be depended on in times of trial. On her a timid 
man might risk his life, or a brave one trust his honor. Louisiana 
is Whig to-day, fairly tried. So, too, is Georgia; or, if bent a moment 
by the blast, unbroken, her banner will resume its place in the Whig 
line. The Whigs are firm everywhere. The means used to defeat 
will strengthen us. The fall, like that of Antieus, will give redoubled 
vigor and energy. The terrible calamity sustained will rouse the 
nation to avert its consequences. But we must endeavor so to triumph 
that the fruits of victory will not be lost. Our adversaries have set a 
most lamentable example. Instead of selecting a man high in the 
confidence of the country, and rewarding him for past services, they 
have chosen a mere man of straw, one so unknown that he might be 
run on opposite principles in different sections. In thus demonstrating 
the availability of such a man, they have done all in their power to 
discourage statesmanlike eminence and patriotism. Our candidate 
w^as defeated because he was too honest, too open, and too manly to 
conceal his opinions. Gentlemen on the other side of the House may 
exult in the event, but they know that he was overthrown in no fair 



(195) 

or manly contest. It was the Hector of Shakspeare, surrounded and 
impaled by myrmidons, 

"The earth that bears Mm dead, bears not alive so stout a gentleman." 

Many a bright qjq and manly heart mourns over him, but he needs 
it not: 

Woe! nnto us, not him^ for he rests well." 

Instead of the dark cypress, there will wave over him the bright 
green laurels of glory, and they will become greener and brighter as 
the centuries roll on!^ But we shall often want his sagacious head, his 
eloquent tongue, and heart of fire. Since he came on the stage of 
action, in every crisis, 

"One blast upon his bugle horn 
W(ts worth a thousand men." 

Sir, it is not talent alone that makes the great statesman. There 
must be added to high intellect a paramount devotion to ones country, 
a determination to sacrifice everything of self to promote its advance- 
ment. No statesman, no man ever felt this principle in a greater 
degree than Henry Clay. And, till life shall fade, he will stand erect 
with a spirit unbroken, in the front rank of those who rally around 
the Constitution and the Union. 

If he bears himself well, so does his party. I declare, sir, I have 
seen nothing, I have heard of nothing, I have read of nothing like it. 
Whether if be a voice from the mountains of my own district, or from 
the densely populated cities of the North, it breathes the same spirit. 
I have seen no one Whig who regretted his course; no one who would 
not rather be in exile with Brutus than triumphing with Antony; no 
one who will not go into battle again with more ardor than he went 
into the former action. Considering its numbers, so help me God, I 
believe there has existed not upon earih a party so noble. If it cannot 
preserve this great country, then, sir, you may burn the Constitution, 
for it is worthless. 

NOTE. 

Persons will observe us niucli difference in the tone of these two speeches 
as in tlieir substance. The first seems to be tlio effort of a man hnnting for 
reasons to support a conclusion already arrived at. The second is the i-esult 
of deep sorrow^ for wliat was regarded as a great public calamity, and intense 
indignation against the authors of the wrong. 

To those unacquainted with the state of political excitement then pre- 
vaiUng, this speech will seem excessively violent; but in giving expression to 
my own earnest feelings, I did not exceed the bounds which party friends 
justified. The Rev. Mi-. Hammett, a Democratic Representative from 
Mississippi, hut a personal friend, afterwards told me that I had said the 
bitterest things ever uttered ou the floor of the House. Mr. Mosely, of New- 
York, a political friend, said that the Democrats, while I was speaking 
reminded him of a flock of geese on hot iron. During the first part of^ the 
speech, Drouigoole, of Virginia, who sat just by me, seemed to enjoy quietly 



(196) 

my hits at the Calhoun wiug of the party, between which and the Van 
Buren or Hunker Democrats there was much jealousy and ill feeling; but 
after I directed my attack on the northern wiug of his party, his manner 
changed and his countenance indicated much subdued anger, I was subse- 
quently told that many members of the party insisted that unless Mr. Yancey, 
who obtained the floor to speak next day, would assail me violently, that he 
should give way to some other member of the i)arty. Hence his remarks, 
which led to a personal difticulty, were perhaps influenced to some extent by 
the wishes of his political friends. 

In fact, till the end of the session I Avas in the almost daily receipt of 
threatening letters, purporting to come from members of the Empire Club 
and other discontented individuals. 

Among Whigs the feeling was as strong on the other side. Mr, Mangum, 
my Senatorial colleague, said that the public mind had been in such a plastic 
state from its high excitement, that my speech had moulded it into a fixed 
shape, in accordance with the views presented. Senator Davis, of Massa- 
chusetts (honest John) told me one evening at his house, that he had received 
so many letters asking for the speech that he had sent seven thousand copies 
in pham])hlet form to his constituents. The Whig party was then so indig- 
nant, united and resolute that it could have cariied the country. Before the 
next Presidential election, by reason of the issues raised through the acquisition 
of the territory taken from Mexico, the political condition of the country was 
so changed that the Whig party had scarcely the form, and little of the 
substance, of a compact political organization. 



[It being regarded as certain that the Mexican war would, at its close, bring 
an acquisition of territory to the United States, an excited controversy had 
ai-isen in the country as to whether that territory should become free or slave- 
holding. The Wilmot proviso, declaring that the territory should forever be 
free, had been pressed, and all the Whigs from the North, with part of the 
Democrats, had regularly voted for it. On the other hand, most of the 
Southern States had taken the position that if slaveholders were by Congress 
excluded from all the territory, such an action would justify resistance. . 

It was also claimed that as Mexico, in all her tenitory, had abolished 
slavery, the institution could not exist there without positive legislation to 
establish it. Mr. Clay subsequently maintained this view, and insisted on the 
declaration of his two great principles; first, that slavery could not exist 
without a positive law to support it; and secondly, that as it had been abol- 
ished there, it could not legally exist. 

General Cass had in his Nicholson letter taken ground for " non-interven- 
tion by Congress" on the subject, and Judge McLean, also a Presidential 
aspirant, in an article published in the Intelligencer occupied similar gi-ound, 
and even went to the length of denying the right of Congress to legislate on 
the subject. 

At the time when Congress assembled, it seemed probable that not only 
would the Whig party be destroyed as a national orgaiiization, but that a 
separation of the States might be caused, or, at least, war might result. At 
an early day of the session the following speech was made. Because the 
principle of division had been adopted in the instance of the Missouri line, 
and also to meet the allegation that slavery having been excluded could not 



(197) 

exist without further legislation, I sought to maintaiu the riglit in Congress 
so to act, as to provide that the territory might be enjoyed by both sections 
of the Union. 

Again, in the hope that the Whigs in the North might be induced to meet 
us on middle ground, and thus save the party from destruction, I, while 
attacking the abolitionists, also condemned the former action of certain men 
at the South. Unless some middle ground could be found, I felt confident 
that not only would the Whig party be destroyed, but that also the union of 
the States would be endangered.] 

SPEECH 

ON THE POLITICAL ASPECT OF THE SLAVE QUESTION, DELIV- 
ERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, DECEMBER 

22, 1847. 

The House being in Committee of the Whole, Mr. CLrNGMAN obtained the floor, 
and said : 

Mr. Chairman: When, the other day, in debate, gentlemen of the 
other side of the house spoke of a black cloud overhanging the country, 
and of there being danger from abolitionism to the South, it was 
impossible to mistake their meaning. As I did not then regard such 
remarks as in order, I allowed them to pass without reply. We have 
now, however, the subject fairly before us. The President says in his 
message now under consideration, that we must have territory from 
Mexico; and his friends on this floor, from the North, insist that this 
territory shall be appropriated to the use of the free States exclusively. 
This presents a great question — a question which has been discussed 
for twelve months over the whole country, and which must be met by 
this House. If that question be debated in good temper, no evil can 
result to the country from the discussion. I, therefore, avail myself of 
this, the first fair opportunity for the expression of my views in rela- 
tion to the whole subject. 

It is known, sir, that on a former occasion I differed with a majority 
of the Southern members of this House, upon a question indirectly 
having some relation to the subject of slavery. I voted against the 
rule excluding abolition petitions, not only because I regarded that 
rule as an infringement of the right of petition, but because I was well 
aware that most of the citizens of the Northern States viewed it in that 
light; and I was not willing to do violence to the feelings of a large 
portion of the Union, for tlie mere purpose of preserving a rule that 
was of no practical advantage in itself. I voted against the rule, 
because 1 saw that by its continuance, we obliged the friends of the 
Constitution and of the South, to fight the Abolitionists at home, upon 
the weakest of all the issues that could be presented, so that we were 
losing ground, and the Abolitionists gaining thereby. I saw clearly, 
that by these means, these disorganizers had acquired a great show of 
strength, by blending with themselves the friends of the right of peti- 
tion. The}^ were thus, too, promoting the object they had in view, of 
getting up excitement, and producing ill-feeling between the North 



(198) 

and the South. I saw, too, that our seeking this new defence implied 
that the Constitution and laws of our forefathers were msufficient bar- 
riers for our protection, and that this seeming confession of weakness 
and fear on our part had encouraged our adversaries, and stimulated 
them to fresh attacks. For these, and other reasons which have here- 
tofore been stated, I opposed that rule, and I now recur to it merely to 
say that subsequent experience has given me additional reason to be 
satisfied with my course. 

That obstacle has been removed, and we are now thrown back to our 
old position, the original ground of defence occupied by us in the morn- 
ing of our Government, when the sun of tlie Constitution, just risen, 
shed its freshest and purest light over the Union. Thirteen States, 
till then independent, sovereign and equal, had united to form a 
government for their common benefit. It was their avowed purpose to 
create such a system as would confer equal advantages on each State 
and its citizens". If, in ibe formation of that government any inequal- 
ity was produced, (which is not admitted,) that injustice was not the 
object of the niakers, and not intended by them. It was their plain 
purpose, not only to give each of the States and its citizens equal 
advantages throughout the Union and its territories, but, out of abun- 
dant caution, they provided that every citizen of the United States 
should in each Stale be entitled to all the privileges of a citizen of that 
State; each State and its citizen might claim a fair share, not only of 
all that the Government had in possession, but of all it had a prospect 
of acquiring. Not only was each State entitled to the equal protection 
of such armies and fleets as the Goverment then had, but should new 
armies be raised, or other ships be built in aftertimcs, they were to 
stand on the same footing. Whatever the government might_ acquire, 
simply because it was the government of the United States, it would 
hold in trust for the use of all the States. For example, when after- 
wards the lower Missihsi]ipi was acquired from France, all the States 
were equally entitled to the benefits of its navigation. Had Congress 
excluded the citizens of any State from its use, and had it said to tliem: 
"You have no right to complain of this; all the rivers within the lim- 
its of of tlie United State to which you became a party are still open 
to you. There are the Hudson, the Potomac, the Ohio, and others; 
we do not exclude you from them ; as to this lower Mississippi, you 
never had any right to its use, and have no grounds to complain of the 
exclusion." Such an act and such reasoning would have been at war 
with the spirit and against the plain intent of the Constitution. This 
view, that all the States and their citizens were equally entitled to the 
advantages of the government, both in possession and in prospect, is so 
obvious, that I need not dwell on it. 

It has been contended, however, that the Constitution intended to 
limit slavery to the States where it then existed, and to exclude it from 
the Territories of the United States. Of the thirteen States which 
created the Constitution, twelve were then slaveholding: Massachusetts 
alone having, during the war of the Revolution, abolished slavery. 
The supposition that the States would exclude from all the Territories 
of the Lnited States an institution which prevailed so generally among 



(199) 

them, seems improbable in itself, and those who maintain it, may well 
be required to furnish the evidence. There is not, sir, in the whole 
Constitution any one clause which, either directly or indirectly, favors 
the idea that slavery was to be limited to the States where it then 
existed, or to be excluded from any part of the territory of the 
United States. The idea of identifying slavery with territory, seems 
never to have entered the minds of the framers of the Constitution. 
There is, however, Mr. Chairman, another limitation of slavery of a 
different character, to wliich I will beg leave to call the attention of the 
House. The Constitution provides that Congress may, in its discretion, 
after the year 1808, prohibit the importation of slaves into the United 
States. The circumstances under which this provision was adopted 
may properly be brought to mind. It is well known that in the Con- 
vention which framed the Constitution there was great difficulty upon 
the subject of allowing slaves to be represented. After, however, it 
had been settled, by repeated votes of the Convention, that three-fifths 
of the slaves should be counted in apportioning representation among 
the States, Luther Martin, of Maryland, (the subject of the regulation 
of trade being under consideration,) said that, as three-fifths of the 
slaves were to be counted in representation, that circumstance might 
operate as an inducement to the importation of such persons, and he 
moved to give Congress the power to prohibit or tax the importation 
of slaves. This motion met strenuous opposition from the members 
of the Convention from South Carolina and Georgia. They were sup- 
ported in their opposition by the members from Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts, who insisted that each State should be allowed to import 
what it pleased; that the morality or wisdom of slavery belonged to 
the State alone; that it was a political matter, which should be left to 
it ; while, on the other hand, the members from Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania were, with Martin, in favor of giving the power of exclusion. 
The debate was long and excited. There was also much difficult}' on 
the subject of giving the power to regulate trade V)y navigation acts. 
It was contended that the principal inducements which the North had 
to form the Union, was the benefit which they expected to derive from 
the exercise of this power; while the Southern members insisted that 
a vote of two-thirds in Congress should be necessary to give validity 
to navigation acts; which would, in effect, have rendered the power 
nugatory. In the midst of these difficulties, which seemed likely to 
render the attempt to form a common government abortive, Gouver- 
neur Morris, of Pennsylvania, suggested that the subject of the impor- 
tation of slaves, and that of a tax on exports, and navigation acts, 
should all be committed, so as to form a bargain between the Northern 
and Southern States. The report from the committee provided that 
the importation might be prohibited after the year 1800; but, on the 
motion of General Pinckney, the time was extended till 1808 ; the 
members from New England voting with Maryland and the three 
Southern States; while Virginia, who was said to have then more 
slaves than she needed, voted against the amendment, with New Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In this form it was ultimately 
adopted, as a consideration for the power given the government to pass 



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navigation acts and regulate trade. It would be out of place here to 
inquire which section has gained most by the bargain — whether the 
North has been more benefitted by our tariff laws than the South by 
the importation of slaves. 

My purpose is to call the attention of the House to the nature of the 
limitation of slavery established by the Constitution. It not only pre- 
served the institution as it then existed, and provided for the represen- 
tation of the slaves, but it allowed their numbers to be indefinitely 
increased for the next twenty years by importations; after which it 
was to cease, if Congress saw fit. But there was no power given to 
exclude free persons. The Constitution of the United States, there- 
fore, was obviousl}^ made to govern all those who were then in the 
country, whether freemen or slaves, and their descendants — all free 
persons who might come into the country in all time, and also all 
slaves which might be imported up to the year 1808. The partner- 
ship or compact of government embraced all of these. It permitted 
an indefinite increase of free persons, but limited the number of slaves. 
That limitation was most clearly of the numbers of the slaves, not of 
the territory they might occup}''. The framers of the Constitution 
seem to have entertained, with respect to liberty and slavery, the old 
fashioned notions — such notions, I mean, as prevailed among the civ- 
ilians and common lawyers of the world; among political and philo- 
sophical writers, and mankind generally — that is, that liberty was a 
personal right, and not one annexed to land or territory. They sup- 
posed that they were promoting the cause of liberty by limiting the 
number of persons who might become slaves, and thereby preventing 
an indefinite extension of slavery. But, the number of slaves being 
limited and fixed, it did not seem to be a matter of moment to confine 
their residence to particular portions of territory. They seem to have 
had no conception of the fashionable phrase of our day, area of slave7-y, 
which must not be extended. 

I am now brought, Mr. Chairman, to the direct consideration of the 
great question as to the extent of the powers and duties of Congress in 
relation to slavery in the territories of the United States. Upon this 
subject a distinguished politician from the South, (Mr. Calhoun,) in 
the other wing of this building, some twelve months siiice, laid down 
certain doctrines, which are, in substance, as near as I can remember 
them, these : The territories of the United States, being the common 
property of the Union, are held by Congress in trust, for the use and 
benefit of all the States and their citizens; secondly, that Congress has 
no right to exclude by law any citizens of the United States from 
going into any part of said territories, and carrying with tliem and 
holding an}^ such property as they are allowed to hold in the States 
from which they come. This view, though perhaps plausible at the 
first glance, is really the most shallow and superficial that could pos- 
sibly be presented. Admitting the first general proposition to be true, 
(and no fair mind can question it,) that the territories of the United 
States are held by Congress in trust for the use and benefit of all the 
States and their citizens, I am free to confess, that if Congress should 
see that it was most advantageous to allow all the citizens to occupy 



(201) 

all the territory in common, with their property, it doubtless ought so 
to provide. But it is equally clear that if, on the other hand Congress 
should see that all the other citizens of the United States could not thus 
advantageously occup}^ the territory in common, it might divide the same 
so as to assign certain portions to particular classes or persons. Why, sir, 
according to this mode of reasoning, it might be insisted that the army 
could not be divided so as to place particular regiments and companies to 
defend certain points in exclusion of others, because each regiment 
and each man belongs to the whole United States, and Congress has 
no right to deprive any State of the services of any one soldier. Each 
national ship must be employed to convoy every merchantman at the 
same moment. Yes, sir, according to this system of ratiocination, 
inasmuch as the National Treasury belongs to the whole United States, 
each dollar therein belongs to all the citizens, and Congress, therefore, 
has no right to direct the expenditure of a particular dollar in one 
State, and thereby deprive all the other citizens of its enjoyment. But 
these propositions, sir, are too absurd in themselves to justify serious 
consideration, and I only have referred to them at all because of the 
high Cjuarter from which they come. 

I return, then, to the great question. What is the condition of the 
territory of the United States ? It might possibly be argued, that 
inasmuch as the Constitution provides for the representation of slaves 
and for their admission up to 1808, and is totally silent as to what 
part of the United States they should be confined to, that it may fairly 
be presumed that they were intended to be excluded from no part of 
the Union, except as far as the States themselves might determine to 
exclude them, and that therefore Congress had no right to interfere in 
the matter at all. I lay no stress, however, on this argument, but 
think that the question must be settled on other principles. The Con- 
stitution gives Congress " power to dispose of and make all needful 
rules and regulations respecting the territory of the United States." 
This grant of power is general and vague. To ascertain its extent we 
must resort to implication. It has sometimes been contended that the 
right of self-government was for a time in abeyance or suspended as to 
the territories. To this view I cannot assent ; the right of self-govern- 
ment naturall}^ belongs to every community; that right can never be 
annihilated or destroyed, though it may be transferred. Unless some 
other community or sovereign lias acquired the authority to control 
it, the first community always possesses the right of self-government. 
So neither can these powers be in a state of suspension, except by their 
being temporarily transferred to some other sovereign or government. 
It is conceded on all hands that the inhabitants of the territory have 
no rights of legislation, and it is equally clear that none of the States 
have any power to govern it. All the powers that can be exercised 
belong to Congress alone; Congress has powers to make all needful 
rules and regulatio7i8. But the wants of all communities are in legal 
contemplation the same; the wants of the territories may be, and in 
fact are, just as great as those of the States. It seems to me then, Mr. 
Chairman, with due deference to those who have given the subject 
graver consideration than I have been able to do, that Congress in leg- 
26 



( 202) 

islating for the territories is controlled only by the Constitution of the 
United States. It is equally true, however, that the people of the 
several States are likewise controlled by this Constitution ; whether 
acting in convention or through their ordinary legislative govern- 
ments, they can do nothing contrary to it. Congress has then over 
the territory just such powers as its legislature would have after it 
became a State. Both are controlled by the Constitution of the United 
States, the supreme law of the land. As this Constitution is silent in 
relation to slavery, it has been argued on the one hand that Congress 
can do nothing to exclude it from the territory; on the other hand, it 
is asserted w4th equal confidence that for the same reason there is no 
power to establish the institution. These two opposite views are wor- 
thy antagonists, and I shall leave them to contend, not fearing that 
either will ever obtain a victory over the other. 

Congress has general legislative powers over the territories ; but one 
of the most important duties of the law-making power is to determine 
the rights of property. What shall be property, how titles shall be 
acquired and maintained, it is the province of the municipal law of every 
country to determine. This principle is so generally recognized, and 
has been so universally acted on among mankind, that it need not be 
enlarged upon. It has been insisted in certain quarters, however, that lib- 
erty being the natural right of all, no property could be acquired over 
persons, and that all attempts of government to legalize slavery in 
any form, are to be esteemed unnatural, illegal and utterly void. To 
deny the right of government to recognize property in persons is easy, 
because it is easy to deny anything ; but to determine what is natural 
among men, you must refer to the conduct and practice of mankind 
generally. To ascertain what powers governments may properly exer- 
cise, you must refer to the action of political States and the conduct of 
nations generally. In this mode we determine the laws of nations and 
the rights and duties of governments. Under the guidance of these prin- 
ciples, how are we to determine the question ? We find that the nations 
of the earth, from the earliest historic ages, have generally recognized 
and established the system of slavery. As to how the matter was 
between the Creation and the Deluge we have no knowledge, but we 
do know that shortly after the latter event the institution existed, not 
only among the patriarchs of the Jewish people, but among all the 
nations from which we have any accounts. Among the Jews slavery 
was limited in this respect. If a male Hebrew became a slave to one 
of his own countrymen, after seven years service he was made free. 
But this privilege seems not have extended to his wife, if a slave, nor 
to his children, nor was it ever held to apply to slaves obtained from 
other nations. From those times downward the institution seems gen- 
erally to have prevailed among the nations of the earth. If the free 
States of Greece, Rome and Carthage seem to have had a larger pro- 
portion of slaves than most of the nations of their day, it is doubtless 
to be attributed to the fact that those Republics, by reason of their 
superiority both in civil and military art and science, were more pow- 
erful than their contemporaries, and thereby able to make a greater 
number of captives in war. So general was the system, that, while it 



(203) 

is easy to find those who denied the right of property in land, it is 
difficult to discover a people who questioned the right to make prop- 
erty of persons. At length the Council of Macen, towards the end of 
the sixth century after Christ, decreed that no Christian should be 
compelled to remain a slave, and Gregory ordained that no heathen 
desirous of becoming a Christian should be retained in slavery. From 
the limitations of these orders, it is obvious that they were made not 
so much to promote the natural rights of men, as the spreading of 
Christianity. 

During the thirteenth century slavery is supposed to have ceased in 
Italy, and not long afterwards in some of the other nations of Western 
Europe. In England we find Henry VIII, in the year 1514, during 
one of his pious fits, manumitting two of his villeins, and by the close 
of that century slavery appears to have ceased in England. On this 
side of the Atlantic, too, the institution has generally prevailed in 
former times, and since our national existence commenced it prevailed 
in all the then States. Even in those States where slavery proper has 
been abolished, as well as in England, property in persons is still 
recognized, and the wife and children are regarded in law as the 
servants of the husband and father; and when they are injured 
he brings an action for the loss of their services by reason of the 
injury. I have high abolition authority for saying that more than half 
of Christendom now hold slaves. The highest court in England, where 
the abolition spirit seems to be strongest, has decided that slavery is 
not contrary to the law of nations. These things being considered, 
Mr. Chairman, it is a great misnomer to speak of our institutions at 
the South as jjecuUar. Ours is the general system of the world, and 
i\iQ free system is the peculiar one. 

If, then. Congress possesses general legislative powers over the terri- 
tories, as I contend, it is idle to deny that slavery may either be per- 
mitted or forbidden to exist there. 

What ought the government to do ? The territories being the com- 
mon property of the United States, it is the duty of Congress to dispose 
of them, as far as practicable, for the use and benefit of all the States. 
If the government, either directly, or indirectly, should by its action 
intentionally so dispose of the territories as to confer greater advant- 
ages on some of the States than on others, then it would be guilty of 
a breach of the high trust confided to it. Should it declare in advance 
that it would exclude any of the States and their citizens from all the 
territories of the Union, this would be a gross violation of the consti- 
tution as it could commit. Being the Government of the United 
States, whatever it has, it must hold and administer for the benefit of 
all the parties to the constitution. One-half of the States have slaves, 
the other half have none. Should Congress establish slavery in all the 
territories, and should that circumstance render them less desirable to 
the citizens of the free States, and thereby prevent their going into 
and occupying them, such a disposition, giving greater advantages to 
the people of one section than to those of the other, would be unjust 
and unconstitutional. On the other hand, should Congress exclude 
slavery from all the territories of the Union, so as to prevent the 



( 204 ) 

citizens of the slave States from occupying them, such a measure 
would be at war with the spirit of the constitution. 

To enable the government, therefore, so to dispose of the territories 
as to promote the common benefit, and thereby carry out the plain 
intention of the constitution, it obviously becomes necessary and 
proper for it to divide them, so as to permit one section to be exclu- 
sively occupied by freemen, and the other by those who may hold 
slaves. By such a course only can it promote the general benefit of 
the whole Union, for which it was created. 

The practice of the government heretofore has been substantially 
in accordance with these principles. At the formation of the consti- 
tution, though twelve of the thirteen States held slaves, it was well 
understood that the more Northern ones having very few, and being 
without any inducement to retain them, would soon be relieved entirely 
of slavery. The government, therefore, left to be occupied by slave- 
holders all that portion of its territories out of which has since been 
created the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, 
and provided that the country north of the Ohio river should be exclu- 
sively occupied by freemen. Its subsequent policy has been consistent. 
The compromise, at the time Missouri was admitted into the Union, 
was right in principle, though it may have been liable to objection, 
because it gave the free States more than three-fourth of the territory 
which the government then held. The subsequent acquisitions of 
Florida and Texas have tended to remedy this inconvenience. 

I do not, however, Mr. Chairman, admit for one moment the doc- 
trine advanced in some cjuarters, that the government ought to acquire 
territory to strengthen either the free or the slave States as against the 
other section. Being the government of the United States, it is not 
justified in using its powers for the advancement of some of the States 
at the expense of the others. If, independently of these considerations, 
there are substantial national reasons for the acquisition of territory, 
it may be acquired. Should it lie on our northern frontier, then, 
on account of its contiguity to the free States, cold climate, and for 
other reasons which need not now be given, it should be made free 
territory. Should it be on our southern border, it ought to be open to 
the citizens of the slave States, who, by reason of their contiguity, 
similarity of climate, &c., would most conveniently occupy it, and it 
ought to tolerate slavery. Should it be on our western border, fairness 
would seem to require its division with reference to the considerations 
above stated. 

It is often asserted, however, Mr. Chairman, in declamation rather 
than in argument, that the Declaration of Independence proclaims 
all men to be free and equal; that that declaration has never been 
repealed; and that, being now in force, it should control the action of 
the government. That declaration was made to dissolve the political 
bonds which connected us with Great Britain. Its validity for that 
purpose cannot be questioned, and the act as such is still in force. 
But the reasons which induced the Congress to take such a decisive 
step formed no part of the act itself It might as well be insisted that 
the reasons given in the report of a committee recommending the 



( 205 ) 

passage of a bill formed a part of the law itself. The declaration, as 
made, was supported by a most able and eloquent popular appeal to 
the people of the colonies and to all the world. It was made in behalf 
of States, every one of which then held and continued to hold slaves. 
It never occurred to any one in that day that the opinions and state- 
ments contained in the declaration became a part of any of the State 
constitutions or of the Articles of Confederation of the United States. 
Even had it been otherwise, it has since been superseded by the Con- 
stitiition of the United States; just as those articles, which were once 
undoubtedly in force, by that act lost their validity, and cannot there- 
fore in any manner now influence the action of Congress. As soon, 
however, as the people of the territory have made a republican form 
of government for themselves, the constitution takes the general legis- 
lative powers from Congress, and gives them to the new State. 

I am now brought, Mr. Chairman, to the consideration of a great 
question in our political system, "What is a republican form of gov- 
ernment," such as the United States guarantees to every State in the 
Union? Eminent men, witli whom I am accustomed to act on many 
questions, hold that it gives such a control over the form of the State 
constitutions as I cannot sanction. On a former occasion, in this 
House, when opposition was made to the admission of Florida into 
the Union, on account of the pro-slavery character of her constitution, 
I took occasion, when supporting her claim to admission, to express 
my dissent from those doctrines. Others have maintained that this 
feature of the constitution was intended to exclude slavery entirely 
from the territories and the States; while, with a third class, the term 
"republican" is understood to be synonymous with perfect equality, 
politically, of all persons whatever. What is a " republican form of 
government?" I know, Mr. Chairman, that there is indisposition on 
the part of some to go into such considerations. They ai'e indifferent 
to everything that does not promise an immediate result. Many sneer 
at abstractions and contemn inquiries into the fundamental principles 
of government. If, sir, by remaining ignorant of the great principles 
which have regulated the rise, progress, and destruction of govern- 
ments and States, we could escape entirely the action of these prin- 
ciples, then, perhaps, "ignorance" would be "bliss." But no man 
escapes the action of the natural laws by remaining ignorant of them. 
The force of gravity acts as violently upon the clown as it does upon 
the philosopher, who understands its laws. The winds and the waves 
of the ocean strike with as much violence the rude craft, constructed 
and directed in profound ignorance of their forces, as they do the sides 
of the best built ship directed by those who are familiar with the 
stormy seas. If a man should sleep in his canoe in the stream imme- 
diately above the cafaract of Niagara, he would not thereby suspend, 
as to himself, the action of that current. He who is selected to direct 
the motions of a steam engine should be acquainted with its powers. 
The laws which control the courses of States and the action of gov- 
ernments, are not less fixed and certain than those which operate in 
the physical world. 



(206) 

What, then, is a "republican form of government," that system which 
is to control the political destinies of the people of the American Union? 
Perhaps there are few terms in our language more difficult to define 
precisely. Mr. Madison, in the Federalist^ admits as much. In Walker's 
and Johnson's dictionaries, the books of the kind perhaps in most 
common use among us, " a republic" is defined to be " a State in which 
the power is lodged in more than one." In this definition they seem to 
follow Addison. AVorcester, who has published the latest and most 
comprehensive dictionary, says : " A republic may be either a democracy 
or an aristocracy. In the latter it is vested in a nobility, or a privileged 
class of comparatively a small number of persons." This is substantially 
the same with Montesquieu's definition of a republic in his Spirit of 
Laws. Polybius, whom, notwithstanding the early times in which he 
lived, I regard as perhaps the most sagacious of political writers, con- 
siders a republic as a mixture of the features of monarchy, aristocracy, 
and democracy in equal proportions, so that any two of these powers or 
estates might, by their combination, be able to prevent the usurpation 
or abuses of the third. Such a government, he thought, would, by its 
executive, secure the strength of monarchy ; by its Senate, the steadiness 
and ivisdom of aristocracy; and by its democracy ensure tliat its action 
Avould be directed to the promotion of the public good. He regarded 
the Roman Government of his day, then in its purest, healthiest, aud 
most perfect condition, though it afterwards decayed and was destroyed 
in the manner pointed out and predicted by him, he, I say, looking on 
this government with the disinterested eye of a stranger and a captive, 
pronounced it the most perfect republic that had ever been known. I 
refer particularly to this government, because the word " republic" was 
a Roman word, invented to designate, and always applied to that system. 
Not only did monarchical and aristocratic features predominate in its 
constitution, but it sustained the system of domestic slavery in its most 
extensive form. During more than three hundred years, and the period 
of its greatest strength and prosperity, it was computed that the whole 
number of slaves was three times as great as the number of freemen. 
Athenaeus states that he knew many Romans who owned ten and twenty 
thousand slaves. A single freedman^ in the reign of Augustus, had 
acquired, at the time of his death, above four thousand slaves. 

If we come down to our own times, we find that these views of poli- 
tical writers were familiar to the minds of the framers of our constitution, 
and constant topics of discussion in the convention. Mr. Gerry, of Mas- 
sachusetts, said : " The evils we experience flow from the excess of de- 
mocracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended 
patriots. In Massachusetts it has been fully confirmed by experience, 
that they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions 
by the false reports circulated by designing men, and which no one on 
the spot can refute." 

Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, observed, "That the general object was 
to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored ; 
that in tracing these evils to their origin, every man had found it in the 
turbulence and follies of democracy ;" and argued in favor of a Senate 
as a check to this tendency in their governments. 



(207) 

Mr. Mason, his colleague, "argued strongly for an election of the 
larger branch by the people. It was to be the grand depository of the 
democratic principle of the government." 

Mr. Madison said: "No agrarian attempts have yet been made in this 
country; but symptoms of a levelling spirit, as we have understood, 
have sufficiently appeared in a certain quarter to give notice of the future 
danger. How is the danger to be guarded against on republican prin- 
ciples? He argued that a Senate, elected for the term of nine years, 
would perhaps answer the purpose ; and in conclusion declared " that, 
as it was more than probable that we were now digesting a plan which, 
in its operation, would decide forever the fate of republican government, 
we ought not only to provide every guard for liberty that its preserva- 
tion could require, but be careful to supply the defects which our own 
experience had particularly pointed out." 

Mr. Ellsworth, of Connecticut, said: "Massachusetts cannot keep the 
peace one hundred miles from lier capital, and is now forming an army 
for its support. How long Pennsylvania may be free from a like situa- 
tion cannot be foreseen." And, in reply to his colleague, (Mr. Sherman) 
who spoke favorably of the condition of Connecticut, Mr. Hamilton, of 
New York, said that there "of late the government had entirely given 
way to the people, and had in fact suspended many of its ordyiary 
functions in order to prevent those turbulent scenes which had appeared 
elsewhere." Pie asked Mr. Sherman whether the State at this time 
" dare impose and collect a tax on the people V In the same speech he 
said, "he concurred with Mr. Madison in thinking that we were now 
about to decide forever the fate of republican govennnent," making 
references to the Roman and other republican governments. And on 
another occasion, he said, in debate, "they suppose seven years a suffi- 
cient period to give the Senate adequate firmness, from not duly con- 
sidering the amazing violence and turbulence of the democratic spirit. 
When a great object of government is pursued, which seizes the popular 
passions, they spread like wild-fire and become irresistible. He appealed 
to the gentleman from New England whether experience had not then 
verified the remark." After referring to many countries, he said : 
"What is the inference from all these observations? That we ought to 
go as far in order to attain stability and permanency as republican prin- 
ciples will admit. Let one branch of the legislature hold their places 
for life, or at least during good behavior; let the executive also be for 
life." 

It may seem a little singular, Mr. Chairman, that all references in 
these debates to disturbances are in the sections of the Union having few 
or no slaves. I ha^'e not made the extracts, however, with any intention 
of showing this, but to make it appear in wdiat sense the framers of the 
Constitution understood the meaning of " republican form of govern- 
ment." As the clause was originally adopted by the Convention in Com- 
mittee of the Whole, it stood thus : 

"16. Jiesolved, That a republican constitution, and its existmg laivs, ought 
to be guaranteed to each State by the XJuited States." 

Why guaranty the existing laws, if twelve of the constitutions, because 
they established slavery, were not "republican," and must of necessity 



( 208 ) 

be altered ? Though the words " its existing laws " were ultimately left 
out of the clause, it was never intimated by any one that the then State 
constitutions were not " republican " because they sustained slavery. 
Gouverneur Morris, of Pennsylvania, who said " that domestic slavery is 
the most prominent feature in the aristocratic countenance of the pro- 
posed Constitution," never pretended that it was not a feature of the 
Constitution of tlio United States itself; nor was there at that time a 
disposition manifested to place the blacks on an equal footing with the 
white race. The same Gouverneur Morris, in discussing the proposed 
basis of representation, said: "Another objection with him against admit- 
ting the blacks into the census was, that the people of Pennsylvania woukl 
revolt at the idea of being put on a footing with slaves." His colleague 
(Mr. Wilson) said : " He had some apprehensions, also, from the ten- 
dency of the blending of the blacks with the whites, to give disgust to 
the people of Pennsylvania, as had been intimated by his colleague," 
(Mr. Gouverneur Morris.) To show that similar feelings exist in the 
free States still, I might refer to the laws of Ohio excluding free negroes ; 
to the extraordinary provision in the new Constitution of Illinois, to 
prevent free negroes from being admitted into the territory of that State ; 
to the decision, the other day, of the State of Connecticut, by which the 
people determined, by a vote of four to one, that free blacks should not 
be allowed to vote. And, as I have alluded to that matter, I will say 
that I have no doubt but that the people decided that question aright. 
I may be told that no mischief lias resulted in Massachusetts from per- 
mitting negroes to vote. And, sir, I have no doubt but that if, out of 
sympathy, all blind infants were allowed to vote, no political evil would 
have resulted, the number of either class being too small to disturb that 
prosperous commonwealth. Nor is it sufficient for me to hear it said 
that this or that particular negro is as intelligent and as moral as the aver- 
age of white voters. It is easy to find females far better qualified to 
think justly on political subjects than most men, and sometimes we find 
those among them not averse to the bustle of an election day. Many 
young men of eighteen and twenty years of age are better politicians 
than other adult voters. Why is it, then, that all females are excluded 
from the right to vote \ Why is it that, even among the other half of 
the human race, men are excluded from the right of suflrage till they 
have attained an age which the majority never reach? It is no answer, 
in the latter instance, to say that all have an equal chance to attain the 
age of twenty-one. So all men may become as rich as Girard or Astor ; 
and you might, on the same principle, fix the property qualification of a 
voter at a million. You cannot deny that many of the excluded are 
qualified to exercise the right ; but they are excluded simply because 
constitutions and laws decide upon general principles, and as classes, 
females and infants under twenty-one are presumed not to be as well 
qualified to vote as adult males. It is this principle which excludes the 
negro, because, as a class, they are inferior to the white race. 

But, perhaps, I shall be arraigned in certain quarters as charging 
injustice upon Providence, when I assert that he has not made the capac- 
ities of the difi'erent races equal. And, forsooth, am I, because men are 
of necessity scattered all over the earth, there not being room for all in 
the temperate zones, lest I should arraign the justice of Providence, to 



( 209 ) 

maintain that all parts of the earth have equal advantages of climate, 
soil, navigable streams, &c., and assert against the evidences of my senses 
that the climate of Siberia is as pleasant as that of Italy, and the deserts 
of Arabia as fertile as the valley of the Mississippi ? He who admits 
that one individual has naturally greater bodily or mental powers than 
another is guilty of the same sort of impiety. The scri[>ture itself 
teaches that, while ten talents are given to some, a single talent only is 
given to others. The difference in the races of men, as they have hith- 
erto existed in the world, are so obvious as to have always arrested the 
attention of mankind. "Whatever regret may be felt among any set of 
philanthropists, it cannot be denied that in the peninsula of India 
a population more than five times as great as that of the whole United 
States is easily kept in subjection by the superior courage and strength 
of a few Englishmen. The African races have been preyed upon by 
every invader from the earliest historic times — formerly by the Egyp- 
tians, the Carthaginians, the Romans and the Saracens; in our own day 
by the English at the south, and the French on the north. The Amer- 
ican Indians afford another striking instance. 

So great are the differences among races or nations of men, that they 
are observed readily by the most careless spectators, though they are 
often overlooked by legislators in framing constitutions of government, 
so that incalculable mischief is produced. Political systems have in all 
ages been made by wise men for those whose capacity was not sufficient 
to sustain them, and the ruins of which have been productive of misery. 
The condition of the Spanish race on this continent aftbrds to our eyes a 
mournful illustration of this. 

The total failure of the emancipation of the negroes in the West Indies 
to answer the expectations raised by the great care with which the Brit- 
ish government effected the measure, is so striking an instance as to 
remind us of the benevolent attempt to change the color of the Moor, 
recorded in ^sop's fable. It was a profound observation of the most 
philosophical of human intellects that we can only govern Nature by 
obeying her laws. The force of this truth is acknowledged with refer- 
ence to the daily transactions of men. They seek to avail themselves ot 
the natural laws, and in building houses and ships, and in the various 
mechanic arts, have a due regard to the qualities of the different sub- 
stances they may employ, and their liability to be affected by different 
agents. In framing, however, social and political systems, the principle 
announced by Bacon is disregarded and contemned frequently by legis- 
lators, who will not understand that Providence has established moral 
laws as determinate as those which govern the physical world, and who 
are astonished from time to time because, when acting in defiance of 
those laws, they cannot find the same results as if their conduct had been 
in accordance with them, I maintain, then, Mr. Chairman, that the peo- 
ple of Connecticut, in deciding that the negroes are nut, as a. class, capable 
of administering our complicated republican system of |government, are 
sustained by the results of experience, observation, and sound philosophy. 

I have, however, occupied more time on this part of my subject than I 

at first intended. My main object was to show what was meant by 

" republican form of government " in the Constitution; that it was not 

meant thereby to exclude slavery either from the States or Territories, 

27 



( 210 ) 

much less did it mean that sort of absolute political equality in all 
respects which has never existed as yet in any one of the States. The 
Constitution of the United States was made by men who had come 
chiefly from the middle and western parts of Europe, and who felt them- 
selves under no obliirations to extend its advantages to the negro race. 

If then, sir, I am right in the view I take of the meaning of the phrase 
" republican constitution," Congress has no authority to object to the 
admission of any State because she tolerates slavery. The attempt to 
exclude Missouri because her constitution was like those of the old States 
was a gross usurpation. Congress has the power to refuse the admission 
of a State for that reason, just as she has the ^^ower to object to admission 
because the State does not tolerate slavery; but she has in either ca,Be no 
right under the Constitution . 

Having thus, Mr. Chairman, glanced at some of the constitutional 
questions whicli have been in public discussions connected with this sub- 
ject, I will ask the indulgence of the House while I consider another 
class of topics. It is said by some who object to the existence of slavery 
in the territories that may hereafter be acquired, that the representation 
of three-fifths of the slaves, as provided for in the Constitution, is wrong ; 
that it gives the Southern States an undue advantage; and that, if new 
slave territories be added to the Union, it will increase the evil. Those 
who urge this objection, sir, would do well to recur sometimes to the 
circumstances under which that clause of the Constitution was adopted. 
In the debates of the Convention, Mr. Rufus King said he "had always 
expected that, as the Southern States are the richest, they would not 
league themselves with the Northern, unless some respect were paid to 
their superior wealth. If the latter expect those preferential distinctions 
in commerce, and other advantages which they will derive from the 
connection, they must not expect to receive them without allowing some 
advantages in return. Eleven of the thirteen States had agreed to con- 
sider slaves in the apportionment of taxation, and taxation and represen- 
tation ought to go together." These preferential distinctions of com- 
merce, and the other advantages anticipated by Mr. King, have been 
enjoyed by the North . Every candid man will admit that those pow- 
ei's of the Government have, for the last thirty years at least, been ex- 
ercised to a greater extent than the men of that day seem to have re- 
garded as practicable and desirable, and with even greater advantages 
to the North than they anticipated. For one, sir, I do not complain of 
this ; but I do say that it is with no very good grace that those who par- 
ticipate in and still claim these benefits, should harp so much upon what 
they gave in exchange. But, Mr. Cliairman, this consideration has, in a 
practical point of view, nothing to do with the subject of slavery in the 
territories. If slavery should be permitted to exist there, since the act 
of Congress forbids the importation of slaves after the year 1808 from any 
other countr}^, none could be carried there except those that were taken 
from some of the United States. But those slaves are already counted 
and represented. It is obvious, therefore, that by transferring part of 
the slaves from the old States to the new, you would not increase their 
numbers. Being represented onl}- in this House — the Senate, as all know, 
rests on a different basis — you would in no wise increase the slave repre- 
sentation by the addition of new slave States. Whatever was added to 



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their population by emigration from the old States, would to the same 
extent weaken the latter. 

This view of the case is so obvious that, when 1 hear persons speaking 
of the "increase of slavery" and "strengthening the slave power," they 
must pardon me for questioning their sincerity. Nor can any one enter- 
tain serious apprehensions that the slave States will overpower the free, 
and control the action of the government. The free States are in the 
ascendancy in all the branches of the government, and their majority of 
more than fifty votes on this floor and in the electoral colleges is greater 
than they ever had in former times. This excess must be increased, too, 
hereafter — nine-tenths of the territory in the northwest being intended 
to be carved into free States, and being more than can be filled up for 
centuries to come, and those States increasing, as they do, faster in pop- 
ulation than the slave States. This circumstance is sometimes referred 
to as evidence that the continuance of slavery is injurious to us as a 
nation. It may be remembered, however, tliat tlie view derived from 
the decennial census is well calculated to deceive. More than one hun- 
dred thousand foreigners annually arrive in the United States, Avho 
settle down almost entirely in the free States. Those who emigrate from 
the old Northern States almost all go to the new free States ; while, on 
the other hand, a very large portion of the emigration of the old Southern 
States goes into the free States of the northwest. This, as I have observed 
myself, is eminently true of the North Carolina emigrants ; and I may add, 
too, but for this emigration, population would increase in that State as 
fast as it could in any country, there being an abundant supply of the 
necessaries of life among the entire population. Nor does the condi- 
tion of the negro population retard its increase. The opinions of Mal- 
thus and other writers, that slavery is unfavorable to an increase of 
population, are probably founded on observations of such as live in 
cities, and are used as domestics. Appian's authority is decisive as to 
the rapid multiplication of slaves employed in the agricultural districts 
of the Roman empire. This accords with our experience in the United 
States. The physical wants of the slave are sure of being provided for, 
because he can never be owned by a pauper. It is due to truth, too, to 
state that the negro race in the Southern States, when considered with 
reference to their physical comforts, industry and moral qualities, are in 
advance of the same race either in Africa or in the Northern States. I 
am ready to admit, sir, that the Southern States would be more prosper- 
ous, as a whole, if filled up with such a population as the freemen of 
this Union. The white race being superior to the black, of course a 
country filled with the former is more vigorous and prosperous than one 
filled with a mixed race. That, however, is not the question to be settled. 
The abolitionist must show that these very negroes, if set free, would be 
more productive as laborers, and more manageable as citizens, than they 
now are. Before they can accomplish this they must, however, account 
in some satisfactory manner for their inferior condition, not only in 
Africa, but where they have been liberated in the West Indies and in 
the Northern States. As -we have the negro race in the country, and 
cannot get rid of them, the true question is, whether they can be better 
disposed of in any other mode. Whatever evils may be attendant on 



( 212 ) 

the condition of slavery, will be rather aggravated by crowding them 
together in a few States. 

Again, sir, popular appeals are made from time to time, by abolition- 
ists and others, to arouse the prejudices of the North against the compe- 
tition of slave labor. These men ought to know that liberating the 
slaves would produce the very evils they complain of. The free blacks 
of the North, not to speak of the Irish and other emigrants, have done 
much more to reduce the wages of labor at the North than the slaves, 
occupied as they are chiefly in the cotton, sugar, rice, and tobacco fields 
of the South. 

Others say that slavery must not be extended to any new territory, 
because the Constitution provides for the calling out of the militia to 
suppress insurrections, and therefore they express immense terror lest 
they should be obliged to aid in suppressing slave insurrections. "When 
they shall in some one instance be required to turn out for this purpose, 
if tiiey should find the burden more intolerable than the other requisi- 
tions of the Constitution, they will doubtless then have good grounds 
for asking such an amendment as may relieve them from this oner- 
ous imposition. It is not, however, at all likely that any insurrection 
will occur sufiiciently extensive to give time for the coming of persons 
from other States to suppress it. 

Much of the agitation, sir, which the country has undergone in rela- 
tion to this subject, is due to the action of anti-slavery or abolition socie- 
ties. Such societies have existed since the foundation of the govern- 
ment, though, for reasons which I may presently allude to, their 
influence has been greater for a dozen years past than formerly. Those 
societies are composed of a variety of elements. There are in them 
conscientious and benevolent men, wdio feel it to be their duty to exter- 
minate some one evil, and who have selected this as the object of their 
exertions. With them are a class who externally seem to resemble 
them, but who may be better described in the humorous lines from 
Hudibras, as those 

"Who compound for sins they are inclined to, 
By damning those they have no mind to." 

Like the Pharisees of old, they are seen publicly giving thanks that they 
are not as the publicans and sinners of the South. In a country like this, 
too, where the general diflusion of education produces many competitors 
for each prize, men of ambition and second rate talents, finding the high 
roads to eminence occupied by their superiors, go in search of new paths 
to distinction. Some of them have sought notoriety and popularity by 
preaching up a crusade against Southern slavery. There is still a fourth 
class — consisting of those who are determined to live off the public — who 
have selected this as a humbug by which to inflame the popular passions 
and obtain money by cheating the confiding and credulous. They are 
as unscrupulous about the means they employ as was the impostor 
Mokanna, who to cloak his hypocrisy and deceive his followers, on his 

banner 

"Unfurled 
Those words of sunshine, Freedom to the world!" 



(213) 

As the societies are, therefore, composed cliiefly of those who design 
to deceive, and of persons of an imaginative cast of mind, who natu- 
rally shrink from examining facts, and are easily led away by their 
impulses, it is not strange that the matters published by them should 
contain all manner of absurdities. Works of pure fiction are written, 
the most glaring falsehoods or misrepresentations published and cir- 
culated, and incorporated into their standard works. When one sees 
the materials they have to work with, he is not surprised at the con- 
clusions to which they come. It is as if one were to attempt to build 
up a system of philosophy upon the facts stated in the History of 
Amadis of Gaul, or the Arabian Nights Entertainments. 

What strikes the observer most, perhaps, is the wonderful diversity 
in doctrine which is exhibited by these societies. Bacon says that, 
"if men were all to become even uniformly mad, the}^ might agree tol- 
erably well with each other." This has been exemplified by some 
sects of fanatics. Unfortunately, however, for the abolition society as a 
whole, its members are not uniformly ryiaf?,and hence, they disagree most 
hitolerahly. Even in their national conventions of delegates you have 
nothing but the "whirl and confusion of argument." Its jarring- 
elements remind one of the struggles of Chance and Tumult in the 
reign of ancient Night, when Chaos sat as umpire, "and by decision 
more embroiled the fray." It might be supposed that their collisions 
would be the means of correcting their errors, but they seem to be in 
the condition of the Schoolmen, who because they built upon the errors 
and logical fallacies of their master, Aristotle, argued with each other 
for two thousand years without ever ascertaining any one truth. The 
society, however, seems likely to split into two grand divisions, Mr. 
Lysander Spooner, who just now appears to be at the head of one, pub- 
lishes a book io prove slavery unconstitutional. Mr. Spooner shows, in 
the first place, that all constitutions and laws which are unjust, are in 
themselves totally void, and that all judges, howsoever appointed, are 
bound so to decide. Having established clearly this proposition, he 
admits that he need not go any further. To show his ingenuity, how- 
ever, he says he will waive that for the present, and then goes on 
and proves, secondly, that slaver}' never had anj^ legal existence in any 
of the colonies ; thirdly, that, if it had legally existed, the Declaration 
of Independence abolished it; fourthly, he proves that slavery had no 
existence, legally, under any of the State constitutions; but that, 
fifthly, even if it had, the Constitution of the United States, when 
adopted, abolished it. These, and many other propositions, he estab- 
lishes. In fact, he proves every thing he attempts, without the slight- 
est difficulty, except that a woman cannot be President of the United 
States. This point, after a learned disqusition and much argumenta- 
tion, he admits is not free from doubt, and he thereupon leaves the mat- 
ter in a great fog. This book, being something new had a wonderful run, 
and the abolitionists collected around Mr. Spooner and applauded him, 
until he began to think that he had at length carried off the "gates of 
Gaza." In an unlucky hour, however, for Mr. Spooner, and his book 
which seemed to be spreading itself like a " green bay tree," they both 
fell into the hands of Mr. Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist of the old 



( 214 ) 

Garrison or disunion school. Not being willing, as he says, that the mul- 
titude should go off after this new light, and seemingly not a little 
pleased to have a man of straw made to his hand, he, with a great dis- 
play of legal learning, strong argument, and sharp sarcasm, cuts Mr. 
Spooner to pieces, to the great terror of his followers — proving beyond 
dispute that slavery is constitutional, and that therefore the Constitution 
must be destroyed before it can be reached. It is in vain that Mr. Spooner 
complainingly says, that if the people believe slavery constitutional, 
they will not be so ready to abolish it, and says, with commendable 
simplicity, that if every body would believe it unconstitutional, it 
could be easily abolished, and that no good anti-slavery man ought to 
attack liis book. Mr. Phillips asks him in turn, whether he is serious 
himself in entertaining such opinions, and in believing that the com- 
munity will ever adopt them, and soothingly tells him that it is a 
small matter that divides them, the only difficulty being whether they 
shall go against slavery under the Constitution or over it. The society, 
however, being thrown into confusion by the dissensions of its leaders, 
and at a stand from doubt as to which of these roads it shall travel, 
seemed at the last accounts in a perisliing condition. 

Notwithstanding all the efforts of the abolition societies for a num- 
ber of years, they have, as such, been able to effect very little mischief 
Their schemes were always either so absurd and visionary, or so reck- 
less of consequences to the well-being of society, that they have been 
successfully combated by the good sense and proper feeling of the 
North; so that, at most, they have but served as scare-crows for the use 
of popular declaimers. The question of slavery has, however, assumed a 
grave and momentous cast, from the attempt to connect it with the 
party politics of the day. In a country like this, political parties will 
always exist ; nor is it, perhaps, desirable that they should be eradi- 
cated, even if it were practicable, which every man of reflection sees to 
be impossible. As to the successful administration of our system, how- 
ever, everything depends on the manner in which those parties are 
constituted. Unquestionably, the safest and best parties are those 
based upon differences of opinion as to the mode of administering the 
government, and as to the measures it should carry out ; not only 
because such parties, having a direct reference to the action of the 
government generally, have a tendency to diffuse correct political 
information among the people at large, whose will must in the end 
govern every thing, but especially because such is the nature of the 
human mind that such parties will have members in every class of 
society and every section of the country. States, counties, neigh- 
borhoods, and even families are divided, and the minorities as well as 
the majorities, in their zeal to defend their views and make converts 
out of opponents, diffuse in every section correct notions as to their 
respective opinions ; so that, by this interchange of sentiment, pro- 
duced by a collision ramifying itself into every portion of the com- 
munity, the excitement is kept within due bounds, and both parties 
are satisfied as to the honesty and patriotism of their opponents, as 
classes, and are rendered tolerant and liberal in their intercourse with 
each other. When an election has terminated, the minority acquiesce 



(215) 

quietly, because that result seems to have been produced by an honest 
difference of opinion as to the measures of the government. If, how- 
ever, the division should be a social one, or one of classes of society, as 
for example, of the poor against the rich, then the results are some- 
what different. 

In the first place, the appeal in such cases not being to the reaso7i, 
but only to the feelings of men, their passions are easily excited to a 
high pitch, and they are prone to resort to violent extremes. Those, 
too, who are disappointed, feel that they have been beaten, not because 
of their demerit, but because of the class to which they belong; that 
instead of having an equal share of what is, in theory, common prop- 
erty, they have been unjustly excluded, and they are thus rendered 
desperate, and determine to break up a sj^stem which oppresses them. 
But of all parties which can exist in a republic, perhaps in any coun- 
try, the most dangerous to the well-being of the State are sectional 
ones, or those founded on geographical distinctions. It is natural for 
men to feel strongly attached to the land in which they live. Hence 
they are prompted to take the side of their own countr3^ in all collis- 
ions between nations; and the same is equally true when the contest 
is between different sections of the same country. Every man feels 
that what he most values in the world is connected with the section 
of country in which he lives; and hence when that section, as a whole, 
is arrayed against any other, it is but natural that his strongest and 
deepest feelings should be aroused; and injustice and injury done to 
that section, he regards as done to himself and all that he most values. 
In party contests, too, of a sectional character, each section is driven to 
greater extremes of feeling, from not understanding properly the view^s 
of opponents. A few violent men take the lead and represent the views 
of another set of men equally violent like themselves, of the opposite 
party, however, as constituting the views of that party as a whole, and 
each faction is thus excited by the supposed violence of the other. 
Reflecting, moderate men often shrink from expressing different views, 
lest they should be charged with hostility to their own section of 
countr}^, and by counsequence the most rash and worthless dema- 
gogues of each section have the guidance of affairs. Hence it has 
invariably happened that when considerable sections of country have 
been arrayed against each other upon cjuestions giving rise to much 
excitement, such divisions have invariably broken to pieces all such 
political systems as the human intellect has been able to devise. These 
views were not overlooked by the founders of our government; and 
General Washington warned the American people, in most emphatic 
language, to "beware of parties founded on geographical distinctions." 
In the debates, too, of the convention which made the Constitution, 
apprehension was felt and expressed from this quarter. It was feared 
by some that the three large States might combine against the smaller; 
that the Western States, when they became populous and strong, 
might be arrayed against the Atlantic States, and that there might be 
found too great a diversity of interest between the planting States of 
the South and the commercial ones of the North. Though attempts 
have been made from time to time by demagogues to get up parties 



( 216 ) 

upon some of these questions, yet the good sense of our people has suc- 
cessfully resisted them. Our party divisions, on the contrary, have 
been of a different character, and every great party has numbered 
among its members inen of all classes and pursuits, as well as of all 
sections of country. This is eminently true as we now witness them, 
there being in almost every State and district of the Union large and 
powerful minorities of one or the other party, embracing men of every 
variety of occupation and standing socially. And in looking back for 
more than a dozen years to the excited elections which the countr}'^ has 
gone through, it will be found that, in the national contests, the can- 
didate who triumphed received majorities in both of the great sections 
of the Union. Owing to these circumstances, the country has expe- 
rienced no serious evil from the great political excitement it has at 
times undergone. Neighbors, friends and relatives being divided thus, 
they have been tolerant towards each other. But if, on the contrary, 
the parties of 1840 or 1844 had been identified with particular geo- 
graphical lines, it may well be doubted if our institutions would have 
stood the shock, and whether the minority would in each case have 
submitted quietly. 

More than one serious attempt has been made, Mr. Chairman, to 
connect the question of slavery with the party politics of the country. 
That which had its origin when Missouri applied for admission into 
the Union, is well known. That State had made for herself just such 
a republican constitution as existed in twelve of the original thirteen 
States at the time they entered into the Union under the Constitution 
— just such a form of government as then existed in half the States. 
Congress, therefore, as I have shown, had no authority whatever to 
refuse her admission. Nor was there even a well-founded pretext for 
the opposition raised, since the slaves she held had been taken from 
the other States, in which they had previously been counted and 
represented. Nor was their number as great as, at the time of her 
adoption into the Un ion, had existed in Louisiana, another State made 
out of the same territory which had been obtained from France. 
There was obviously no justifiable ground on which to exclude her. 
Some of the politicians, however, tired of being in a minority, and 
seeing that the free States had a majority in the electoral colleges and 
in the House of Representatives, and that, if they could be induced all 
to act together, they would be able to control the national elections, 
seized upon that occasion to endeavor to promote a sectional division 
between the North and the South, and thereby build up a political 
party in the North strong enough to carry the Presidential election. 
The fearful agitation which the country then underwent, caused many 
to apprehend that the days of our united existence were numbered. 
There was, however, a settlement made at length, upon terms which, 
though unequal to the South, were not at variance with the spirit of 
the Constitution. 

The next effort to connect this question with party politics, I am, as 
a Southern man, Mr. Chairman, sorry to be compelled to say, came 
from the South. In speaking of this and some subsequent events, I 
regret to feel obliged to allude to matters, connected to some extent 



(217) 

with political movements of our own day. I shall not, however, speak 
of these things as a partisan. I do not intend to make a single remark 
offensive to any friend of the existing Constitution of the United 
States. I shall only allude to such great facts as are necessary to be 
seen to enable the public to form a correct judgment in relation to the 
question. This is due to truth, and to the magnitude of the issues at 
stake; and I intend, as far as I am able, to do justice to the question. 
The Southern States, being in the minority, were not able to make any 
successful aggressive attacks upon the North in relation to this subject. 
Their true position was simply one of defence, and the guaranties of 
the Constitution, and the just sentiments of the body of the people at 
the North, were amply sufficient to enable us to sustain that position. 

After the unpleasant difficulty growing out of Nullification had been 
satisfactorily settled, there was a general disposition both at the South 
and in the North to bury all sectional and local ill feelings and differ- 
ences. Unfortunately, however, for the repose of the country, Mr. 
Calhoun, who had been a prominent actor on the side of nullification, 
found himself uncomfortable in his then position. The majorities of 
every one of the Southern States were not only opposed to him politi- 
cally, but viewed him with suspicion and distrust. Being ambitious 
of popularity and influence, he sought to restore himself to the confi- 
dence of the South in the first place, and seized upon the slave question 
as the means to effect that end. He professed to feel great dread lest 
the North should take steps in contravention of our rights, and to 
desire only to put the South on her guard against the imminent dan- 
ger which was threatening her. He only wished to produce agitation 
enough to unite the South, though everybody well knew that there was, 
in relation to this subject, no division thet'e. Whether he had ulterior 
views against the integrity of the Union, it is not ray purpose to 
inquire; I am only looking at acts, not inquiring into motives. The 
former obviously looked to the creation of a political party based on 
the slavery question. 

The United States Telegraph, edited by General Green, shorn of its 
former strength and influence, was then only known as his organ. 
Immediately after the adjourment of Congress, on the 4th of March, 
1833, that Congress which, by the compromise law, had put an end to 
the painful excitement growing out of nullification, when there was a 
general disposition throughout the land to enjoy repose from internal 
agitation, the editor of that paper began the publication of a series of 
inflammatory articles. He called upon the "South to awake, to arouse 
to a sense of her danger." The North, he said, had arisen to invade 
the institutions of the South. Under the new principles of the then 
administration, he said that they were preparing to liberate the slaves. 
He searched the whole country over, and republished every abolition 
document and frothy incendiary paragraph he could find. He declared 
that the whole North was unsound, and preparing itself for a crusade 
against us. Column after column of this sort daily came out, containing 
the most offensive matter which he could invent and publish. Those 
Southern papers which refused to echo his views he denounced as "collar 
presses." The Richmond Enquirer, of the same political party, in 
28 



(218) 

June of that year, uses this language: "The United States Telegro.ph 
charges us with abandoning the cause of the South, because we do not 
cry out wolf upon the question of slavery. This is folly, or it is false- 
hood. We do not declaim about slavery because we cannot believe 
that the citizens of the North are mad enough to trench upon our 
rights." The Pennsylvanian, of the same political party, from the 
North, uses this emphatic language : " The conduct of the United States 
Telegraph in relation to the slavery of the South is incomprehensible. 
Day after day that incendiary print is endeavoring to stimulate an 
excitement on this fearful topic, by representing the despicable jour- 
nals of a few fanatics in New York and Boston as the emanations of 
the late patriotic proclamation of our venerable President. The Tels- 
graph professes to be friendly to the South, to have the especial man- 
agement of her cause, and yet its course appears only to be calculated 
to stir up such horrible scenes as the Southampton tragedy, or to 
awaken the slumbering sensibilities of the North to the great, original, 
momentous, and fearful Cjuestions of slavery and liberty. Does the 
Tel-egraph, in its insane paroxysm, want to open this dreadful question? 
Does it want to unsettle the Constitution and spread a conflagration 
through society?" 

Such language brought from the Telegraph only gross insults. In 
the paper of June 15th he says: "We ask the people of the South why 
is it that the Northern politicians are so fond of the Unumf Is it not 
because they desire to prrofit from it?" Sometimes his language betrays 
his real object. In the number of June 8th he says: "We say to the 
people of the South, awake! The incendiary is abroad! The Union is 
in danger! Already has the ban of empire gone forth against your 
best and wisest statesmen ! Fidelity to you is political death to them ! 
Treason to you is the surest passport to federal promotion ! Is it wise, 
is it safe, is it honorable to sleep over such wrongs ?" His principal 
had then, but recently, too, declared in his speech of the preceding 
session that henceforth every Southern man was to be excluded from 
office. Such declarations were made by tliese co-laborers at a time 
when a Southern slaveholder had just been inducted into office a 
second time with an immense vote at the North, and when the South 
had as large a share of the offices of the government and as much 
influence in the Union as it ever had. But simply because Mr. Cal- 
houn was excluded from office the South was oppressed and degraded. 
A few satellites echoed these things, but the press and people generally 
at the South expressed disapproval of and disgust with such proceedings. 
I will venture the assertion, in which I appeal to the candor of all 
Southern men to sustain me, that out of the State of South Carolina, as 
to which I do not profess to speak, Mr. Calhoun was not sustained 
in any one State in this Union, by five per cent, of the population. 
In fact his strength at the South was about as great as that of the 
Abolitionists at the North. His violence or denunciation was food for 
the Abolitionists just as their fanaticism gave him materials to work 
with. 

The South, generally, had not chosen him to defend her, and viewed 
his efibrts in her behalf as mala fide. Though he might state prin- 



(219) 

ciples that she approved, she would not trust the man or follow his 
lead, and he had the mortification of finding that he added nothing 
to his influence or popularity. When these occurrences began, the 
people of the North, not understanding the game that was to be played, 
seemed surprised. They declared that the South was too timid and 
too sensitive on the question ; that there was no danger to be appre- 
hended from the machinations of the Abolitionists; and that their 
movements were condemned b}' ninety-nine out of every hundred of 
the citizens of the free States. If it were not, sir, for consuming too 
much time of the House, I might refer to published letters and 
speeches of the first men all through the North. Intelligent Southern 
men, too, who traveled through the Northern States, declared the same 
thing. Large meetings were gotten up in all the Northern cities, in 
which the abolition movements were denounced in the most emphatic 
manner. Many remember the meeting at Boston, at which Otis made 
that noble and most eloquent speech. Strong demonstrations were 
made all through the North. The persons of the Abolitionists, as 
being common disturbers of the public peace, suffered violence, and 
the houses where they held their meetings were burnt. All these 
things, so far from diminishing the factitious excitement gotten up in 
the South, seemed to have produced the greatest irritation, the '^ Telc- 
grcqjh'" becoming more furious than ever, and denouncing the Northern 
men generally as false-hearted, and hypocritical and ^'dough-faced" 
Such returns seemed to chill a little the generous enthusiasm of the 
North. The great body of the Southern people being quiet and silent, 
they did not know how much these incendiary efforts were contemned 
and despised at the South generally. These attempts, however, were 
persisted in for two or three years; and, though they did produce some 
ill-feeling between the different sections of the country, and weakened 
the position of the South essentially, and seriously diminished her 
influence in the Union, yet the efforts so far failed to answer any 
present purpose which the actors had in view, that the attempts were 
finally abandoned, in the main. 

There was, however, a feehle effort to connect the slavery question 
with the presidential election in 1836. Mr. Van Buren, a Northern 
man, was opposed by a candidate in the South, and these persons, 
having at that particular time strong objections to the former, and 
wishing to unite the South, represented him as being an Abolitionist; 
in making which charge they were joined by some of the party presses 
and party men of that day. The charge was so glaringly unjust that 
it was easily refuted, and Mr. Van Buren received even at the South a 
larger vote than did his Southern competitor. In the succeeviing elec- 
tion, in 1840, some of these persons, having changed sides, and gone 
from one of the great political parties over to the other, seeing that 
they had not been able to prove Mr. Van Buren an Abolitionist, 
endeavored to show that his op})onent at least was one. In this effort 
they failed as signall}^ as in the former one; and General Harrison's 
views being soon well known, he received a much larger vote at the 
South than did his competitor. By a sort of fatality it seemed that 



(220) 

these persons killed off what they embraced, just as the abolitionism 
of the North has destroyed what it has fixed upon. 

A passing notice is perhaps due, Mr. Chairman, to the last Demo- 
cratic Baltimore Convention. A great effort has been made in some 
portions of the North to create a strong prejudice against the South 
on account of some of the doings of that convention. The "slave 
power" is denounced as having overthrown a great Northern states- 
man, viz., Mr. Van Buren, by the two-thirds rule; and a strong 
attempt is made to excite his old personal friends against the South. 
And it is not a little singular that some who assisted in his rejection 
are now making the charge. To those who were acquainted with those 
proceedings nothing could seem more absurd, and even ridiculous, 
than such a charge. In that convention the free States had a majority 
of fifty votes, and the convention, by a simple majority vote, agreed 
on its'rules of order and mode of voting. This was done, too, after 
weeks of discussion in the public prints, when the effects both of 
majority and two-thirds votes were canvassed and perfectly understood. 
It is well known that a majority of the leading politicians of the party 
had come to the conclusion, after the results of the spring elections in 
Connecticut and Virginia, that Mr. Van Buren's nomination would be 
fatal to his party ; and, as a great many delegates had been instructed in 
meetings during the winter and fall before to vote for him, it was deemed 
most politic and expedient to exclude him, simply by adopting the 
two-thirds rule. For its adoption the "slave power" of the South is 
no more responsible than the free power of the North, as the voting 
shows. After the convention, I was told by a Democratic member of 
Congress, himself an actor in those scenes, that they had, even in the 
event of the two-thirds rule being not adopted, a sufficient number 
pledged to defeat Mr. Van Buren on a mere majority vote, should it 
have become necessary for them to take the responsibility of so doing. 
Nor am I sure that Mr. Van Buren's Texas letter had any decided 
influence against him. Knowing, as I did, how many of the leading 
politicians of the party stood either for or against him, I cannot 
remember a single one who changed his ground after the publication 
of his letter. 

The prospect, now, however, Mr. Chairman, that territory may be 
acquired, and the chance of getting up a practical issue on these ques- 
tions, has opened a wide field for political excitement. An extraor- 
dinary effort is being made in certain quarters to create strong sec- 
tional feeling. Those who have taken the lead in the matter declaim 
against the extension of slavery, though they well know that if new 
territory should be opened to slaves, as none could reach it except 
from the present slave States, the numbers of such persons in the 
Union could not be increased. They complain vehemently of the 
slave representation, and say it shall not be increased; yet they well 
know that the whole slave population is already counted, and repre- 
sented both in this House and in the electoral colleges, and that no 
addition would be made to that representation by simply dividing the 
population. They denounce, too, the "slave power," and say that the 
South is seeking to control the government, though they well know 



( 221 ) 

that the free States have the ascendancy in both Houses, and a large 
majority in the electoral colleges; and that under the arrangements 
made nine-tenths at least of the territory of the United States will be, 
as it comes into the Union, carved into free States. They talk much 
of the evils of slavery, yet the}^ know that if the number of slaves 
be not increased, the disadvantages attending the system are rather 
diminished than increased, by diffusing it over a large surface. 1 hese 
various objections, being obviously mere pretexts, would not of them- 
selves make sufficient impression on the public mind at the North to 
produce much excitement. Bui a great appeal is made to the pre- 
judice of the ignorant. They are told that a slaveholder has three 
votes for every five slaves; forgetting, however, that all the free negroes 
are counted, and that, therefore, white men, in most of the Northern 
States, where negroes are not allowed to vote, have, upon this prin- 
ciple, five votes to the Southern man's three; and those of them who 
clamor for emancipation should remember that, if all the Southern 
slaves w'ere liberated, the South would be a gainer of two-fifths in 
strength, and still none of the negroes would be permitted to vote, the 
Constitution leaving that matter altogether to the States, and nearly 
all of them in the Union excluding free negroes from voting. To 
excite the public mind, too, demagogues talk about the rights of free 
labor and the degradation of slave labor, and say that its competition 
must not be suffered. They do not pretend that a freeman cannot 
work as much because he knows that there are slaves at work some- 
where else, and they should certainly know that the competition of 
slave labor, as it is now employed, is much less injurious to the North 
than it would be if these slaves were liberated. They have even now 
much stronger inducements to seek the expulsion of the free blacks 
and the exclusion of the Irish and other foreigners, the influx of whom 
diminish wages. The}^ are striving, too, to excite the prejudices of 
the envious and mean against the exclusive privileges of slave- holders. 
I mean, sir, that class of persons (I hope a small one) which is some- 
times arrayed against land-owners, and occasionally clamor for agra- 
rian laws and divisions of propert3\ They denounce Soutliern men as 
man-stealers, slave-dealers, &c., not choosing to remember that almost 
all the slaves of the South were originally bought of Northern ship- 
owners, who brought them to the United States, and sold them to us. 
They should know that they are under just as great obligations to 
return to us the purchase money which our ancestors paid theirs, as 
we are under to give up the slaves. "The present generation is no 
more responsible for slavery than it is for the existence of swamps and 
pine barrens." I use the words of Harrison Gray Otis, of Boston, a 
name which deserves to be remembered wherever intellect and worth 
have fame. 

Men at the North are now saying', as it was said by Duff Green in 
1833 : " The time has come; the issue must be met." They quote the 
language of men at the South as violent as themselves, with a view of 
stimulating as much as possible the passions of their own people. 
The Abolitionists of the North and the ultras at the South have united 
in lamenting the existence of political parties, which they say prevents 



(222) 

men's making a direct issue on slavery. But for this obstacle they 
say that the two sections of the Union could be arrayed in anger 
against each other. Do they not see that such a state of things would 
at once break in twain this confederacy? They, however, are not 
afraid ! They taunt each other on both sides and boast of their cour- 
age ! Sir, from my limited knowledge of human nature, I have found 
that persons who were most indifferent to public calamities, and who 
were most reckless in plunging others into danger when in personal 
peril, invariably proved themselves craven cowards. True courage, 
because of the generous qualities which usually accompany it, makes 
men careful of the public safety and causes them to shrink from 
exposing others to peril. These boasters, therefore, would do well to 
remember that they are furnising to the world J9/•/^/^'rt/«c^e evidence of 
their own poltroonery. Whenever, Mr. Chairman, you see political 
parties divided by strict geographical lines the Union is virtually at 
an end, because the smaller section, seeing it was permanently excluded 
from all share in those political rights which should be common to all, 
would be justified in seeking, and no doubt would seek, a new system. 

There are those who are now looking to a destruction of the present 
Constitution. To show the sentiments of some of those who are most 
clamorous against the extension of slavery, let me bring to the atten- 
tion of the House certain extracts. I read them, sir, as they have 
been collated by Mr. Nathan Appleton, who, I need not say to this 
House, is one of the first men not only of New England but of the 
United States. Because he expressed sentiments of regard for the 
Constitution and the Union, and a determination to abide by the laws 
as made, a torrent of obloquy was directed against him, so as to oblige 
him to publish a pamphlet in his defence. 

But I come to the extracts which he thought it proper to make to 
show the opinions of his assailants, many of them persons of no mean 
capacity or standing at home. I will read but a few of the sentiments 
collected by him from various quarters: "Accursed be the American 
Union as a stupendous republican imposture ! Accursed be it, as a 
libel on democracy and a bold assault on Christianity ! Accursed be 
it ; it is stained with human blood and supported by human sacrifices ! 
Accursed be it for all the crimes it has committed at home — for seeking 
the utter extermination of the red men of its wildernesses, and for 
enslaving one-sixth part of its teeming population ! Accursed be it for its 
hypocrisy, its falsehood, its impudence, its lust, its cruelty, its oppression! 
Accursed be it as a mighty obstacle in the way of universal freedom 
and equality ! Henceforth the watchword of every uncompromising 
Abolitionist, of every friend of God and liberty, must be, both in a relig- 
ious and political sense, no union with slave-holders P"* 

This last sentiment he shows has been adopted as a motto by many 
who do not profess to belong to the sect of abolitionists. Others less 
open and candid profess more regard for the Constitution, which they 
say has been always trampled under foot by the " slave power." A 
stranger to our history, hearing the sentiments which are uttered in 
many quarters, would naturally suppose that the United States was 



( 223 ) , 

the worst governed country on earth, and that the Northern section 
had borne most of the evil and was the most miserable portion of it. 

In the debates of the convention which framed the Constitution, 
apprehension was expressed that the three large States might combine 
against the smaller ones. Mr. Madison, in reply, said that no danger 
need be apprehended on that account, because such was the diversit}^ 
of interest between these three large States that they could not com- 
bine. The staple of Virginia, he said, was tobacco; that of Pennsyl- 
vania was flour, and of Massachusetts fish. The staple of Massa- 
chusetts then was fish. What are nov:) her staples ? New York, then 
a little State, dreading a close alliance with her great neighbors — look 
at her to-day ! Pennsylvania, whose representative, Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, spoke contemptuously of the New England States in comparison 
with the middle ones, especially his own, she, sir, notwithstanding a 
progress which none of her sons at that day anticipated, finds herself in 
danger of being passed by Ohio, a State not then in existence^ — a crea- 
tion of the Constitution itself But the South, under whose control 
and for whose benefit it is pretended the entire powers of the govern- 
ment have been exercised, though she has made no inconsiderable 
progress, yet, in comparison with the North, she seems to have retro- 
graded. So striking is the disparity, that the Abolitionists are con- 
stantly asserting that the South is too feeble to uphold slavery herself, 
and that, if the protection which the Constitution of the United States 
gives were withdrawn, slavery would fall of itself 

That great disadvantages would result, Mr. Chairman, from the de- 
struction of the Constitution, I am the last man to doubt. The evils of 
such a catastrophe are so great that I could not conceal them if I would, 
and I would not conceal them if I could. But, sir, it may mxII be ques- 
tioned whetlier the calamities which it would bring would fall more 
heavily on us than upon others. Though the slave States are not equal 
to the free in ]iopulation and wealth, yet the strength they have is 
amply sufficient for purposes of defence, either as against the North or 
against foreign Piations. In fact, I might say with truth that the smallest 
republican States that have ever existed in the world, as long as tliey 
were actuated by a determined spirit, have successfully resisted inva- 
sion. Not only is the population of the South, and its extent of terri- 
tory, amply sufficient for present purposes, but its chance of extending 
its dominions would be better than that of the free States, since we have 
on our southern border a feeble neighbor, while Great Britain would 
most probably be able to protect her colonies on the northern border of 
the Union. Though we have little of commercial and manufacturing 
wealth, yet the tarifi" and navigation laws which we should establish by 
excluding the competition of the North would soon give us both. This, 
and the aversion to going into what would then be a foreign, most 
probably a hostile country, would kee]) our population at home. And 
since the States south of the Ohio river, on both sides of the Mississippi, 
are quite strong enough to hold that territory, it nn'ght well be doubted 
if the new States on its upper waters would not find powerful induce- 
ments to unite their political with their commercial interest. But we 
are denounced for our bad morals, and sneered at for our weakness, from 



(224) 

time to time. A recent publication says, *' traitors to freedom at heart, 
as tlie slave interest ever was," &c. We shall be content to exhibit to 
the world such morals as those of John Marshall, William Gaston, and 
a thousand others that I might name ; such devotion to freedom as 
Henry, and Jefferson, and Madison, and Davie, and Rutledge exhibited ; 
with as much courage to defend it as Washington and the old thirteen 
slave States manifested in their day — such as our citizens showed since 
in the defence of Baltimore and New Orleans, and such as has been 
exhibited on the battle-fields of Mexico by the regiments from Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and South Carolina. As I have had 
occasion to speak rather unkindly of some of the sons of the latter State, 
you will pardon me, sir, for adding that an intimate acquaintance with 
her citizens enables me to say that there are none elsewhere more gener- 
ous, liberal, frank and brave. And the late Colonel Butler — I knew him 
well — when he died, left nowhere a nobler soldier to defend the flag of 
his country. 

What, Mr. Chaii-man, is to be the result of these attemj^ts on the part 
of the North ? I do not allude to interference witli slavery, as it exists 
in the States and Territories. No sane man imagines for a moment that 
any action of Congress could have any other effect, except to liberate 
such fugtive slaves as migiit escape over the lines after a dissolution of 
the Union. But, sir, what is to be the effect of this action, if carried 
out, in relation to territory to be hereafter acquired ? I do not pretend 
that any section of the Union can insist fairly that territory should be 
acquired for her benefit. We are, doubtless, all bound in good faith to 
adhere to the Constitution and Union with such boundaries as it had 
when we became parties to it. But I do say, that if the government 
should acquire territory, it takes it under the Constitution for the beneiSit 
of all, and a decree that any section or its citizens shall be excluded 
from all such territory, would be as great a violation of the Constitution 
as the government could possibly commit. Such is substantially this 
proposed exclusion of slavery from all territories hereafter to he acquired. 
Will the slave States acquiesce in this state of things ; or would they 
suppose that a government which was capable of this would not stop 
short of inflicting any other wrong? Would they ever acquiesce in this 
radical change of the Constitution — a change, the leading object and 
effect of which would be to degrade them from their present position of 
equality ? 

Rufus King, of Massachusetts, said, in the debates of the conven- 
tion, when the subject of slave representation was under consideration, 
in allusion to the position of the Southern States : " If they threaten 
to separate now, in case injury shall be done them, will their threats be 
less urgent or effectual when force shall back their demands ? Even in 
the intervening period there will be no point of time at which they will 
not be able to say. Do us justice or we will separate."" What wall they 
do in this emergency % It is a most unseasonable time for you to expect 
us to acquiesce in such a decree of political and social degradation, now, 
when some of the best blood of the South has been poured out like 
water on that territory. I will not, sir, undertake to tell you what they 
will do, because I have not been commissioned by them to announce 
their purposes, and I would not wish to be the first to announce painful 



( 225 ) 

intelligence to your ears. You, J\[r. Chairman, can judge of this as 
well as I. You remember when Great Britain claimed theoretical]}' su- 
premacy over the colonies, what those thirteen slave-holding colonies did. 
Do you suppose that the enjoyment of liberty for more than sixty years 
has rendered us indifferent to is sweets ; or, if you please, that domina- 
tion for that period over our slaves has made us willing to change places 
with them ? Though I will not attempt to tell you what the Southern 
States will do, yet, sir, it is my privilege, as a republican and a freeman, 
to disclose frankly my own purpose. 

I am for maintaining our present Constitution of government as long 
as any amount of human exertion can uphold it. Whatever of courage 
and patriotism induces the hardy mountaineer of Switzerland or Cir- 
cassia, to struggle for ages against the sword of the invader in defence 
of the snowy mountains which shelter him — whatever an Athenian felt 
due to liberty on the plain of Marathon, or the Spartan king owed to 
his country when he devoted himself to death at Thermopylre — this, and 
more than all this, I hold to be due from every x\merican citizen to the 
Constitution of his country. But when a great organic change is made 
in that Constitution — a change which is to degrade those who have sent 
me to represent them here — then, sir, at whatever cost of feeling or of 
personal hazard, I will stand by the white race, the freemen of the South. ' 
Should we be forced away, we will control as we best can the inferior 
race which Providence has placed under our charge. We shall deal 
better by them than England does with her Irish or East Indian popula- 
tion. We may not find it safe to impart to them the highest degree of 
intellectual culture, even if they wore ca])able of receiving it. Many of 
the Roman slaves were learned in physic and other sciences, but when 
it was proposed to distinguish the slaves by a peculiar dress, the sagacious 
Senate refused, fearing thus to teach them their great superiority of num- 
bers. Nature lias given our slaves a gar!) which distinguishes them from 
ns, and places a barrier to social and political e^iuality. Should they by 
these or other causes be driven to insurrections, we may be forced to 
destroy many of them, as Rome did in her servile wars. It is hardly pos- 
sible that any contingency will render it necessary for the white race, in 
its own defence, to exterminate them, as the New Englanders did the 
Pequod and other Indian tribes, whom they found in their way on that 
territory. But, happen what may, we shall never bo degraded to the 
level of such liberty and equality as ])revails in IVIexico, much less 
reduced to the condition of St. Domingo. The North, if she is not satis- 
fied with the present Constitution, may go on in search of such a sys- 
tem as has never yet existed. She may go on with her progressi'oe 
deraocracy^ as Rome did after the days of the Gracchi ; she may go on 
till she finds such equality as prevailed in France wiien Mirabeau was 
an orator, and Robespierre a magistrate. AVhether she will then find a 
Caisar or a Napoleon, or whether she will move on into some new 
Utopian fields of liberty, time only can disclose. 

It would be vain, however, for us on cither side to hope for such ])ros- 
perity as we have hitherto enjoyed. If the stream of our national exis- 
tence should be divided, each branch must roll a diminished volume, 
and would be able only to bear a lesser burden. Such a separation 
would be the saddest of all partings. We should feel that our way was 
29 



( 226 ) 

louely, like that of Hagar in the desert — desolate as the wanderings of 
onr first parents when crime had jnst begun. Like the exile of Boling- 
broke, we should have the same revolution of the seasons, the same sun 
and moon, and azure vault and rolling planets above our heads, but not 
the same mind and the same feelings. The vast constitutional edifice 
reared by our ancestors, and which they fondly hoped would stand like 
those marvelous eastern pyramids, the monuments of forty centuries, 
would, like the fabled palace of Aladdin, have melted away in the mists of 
the morning. It would be diflicult and most painful to realize our new 
situation. Our fleets and armies in other lands would find themselves 
suddenly divided into aliens, possibly enemies to each other. When the 
veteran Scott should chance to cross my path, am I, because he is a resi- 
dent of a free State, to gaze on him only as I would on Wellington or 
Soult ? If the gallant Worth should come in my way, shall I not take him 
by the hand as a countryman f If Taylor should go to the North, will 
he be regarded as an alien ? And those that stood under him at Buena 
Yista — are Lincoln, and Hardin, to be separated from Clay, and McKee, 
and Yell, by whose sides they lived and died in defence of the banner 
of a common country? 

Great, however, as are the perils which beset us, we have powerful 
allies to resist them. After the adjustment of the painful diflflculty in 
the days of nullification was known in France, Lafayette, the friend of 
America, who had looked on with intense anxiety, on the first public 
occasion gave as a sentiment, "the good sense of the American people, 
which enabled them wisely to settle all domestic difiiculties." We have 
abroad, among our people, a mass of strong, clear good sense, which in 
times of trial and danger has always sustained and controlled the action of 
the government. We have a community of interest, which it would seem 
that no party madness could break up. We have, too, recollections of 
the past, which to American feelings are stronger even than calculations 
of interest. Our immediate ancestors, in the establishment of our inde- 
pendence, and in the creation of this Constitution, performed such deeds 
as the world never saw ; and we have fresh in our minds the recollec- 
tions of their common counsels, common sufierings, common struggles, 
and common triumphs. There are Adams and Jefi'erson in counsel 
together ; there are Bunker Hill and Yorktown ; there the blood of 
Warren, and Montgomer}^, and Fulaski, and De Kalb; the genius of 
Franklin, and the great name of Washington ; the daring of Paul Jones 
and Decatur, on the broad blue water, and the dying words of Law^- 
rence. These recollections of the mighty dead stand, like giants of the 
olden time, to defend their Constitution. If, with all these proud recol- 
lections of the past, and such anticipations for the future as never a 
nation had, we can destroy this bond of Union, then we shall deserve a 
position as low as it may otherwise be high. 

NOTE. 

Though individuals might commend a speech like this, yet such was the 
state of feeling then existing in the country that neither appeal nor argument 
could produce any material change in the action of parties. 

That portion of the Whig party in the North, which cherished the views 
of the old federalists, in favor of a strong central government, as a means 



( 227 ) 

of obtaiuiug pecunuiry advantages over the Southern and Western States, 
saw that the anti-shxvery agitation would give them great additional strength. 
The abolitionists were, of course, in favor of a consolidated government, in 
order that they might, through it, assail slavery in the States, and it was 
natural that those at the North, who wished to use the government as a great 
money-making machine for themselves, should seek an alliance with them. 

The Northern Whigs, however, had to play a part which was attended 
with great risk, and required the most delicate management. If they went 
too far, they might show their hand to the Southern Whigs, and thus by 
losing the whole South, and the moderate men of the North, incur defeat. 
It was their purpose, if possible, to beat their opponents, the democrats, 
without driving off from them the freesoilers and other anti-slavery men. 
They were willing to take up General Taylor if he would avoid publicly 
committing himself, on the subject of slavery, in the Territories. His 
friends induced him so to act as to meet their views. He declared, in sub- 
stance, that he would not veto a bill unless it was, in his view, unconstitutional. 
With him as a candidate they could take the position that, as the restriction 
of slavery or Wilmot Proviso had already been settled by repeated pre- 
cedents, he would not fail to sign such a bill; and hence it was only necessary 
for the people of the North to be sure to elect men pledged to the proviso 
and other kindred measures. They relied on the fact of Taylor being a large 
slaveholder and his military popularity, to satisfy the Southern Whigs. But 
if any other candidate, among those prominent, had been nominated, a 
declaration of principles might have been required. 

It was because I saw that Taylor's candidacy, in the attitude in which he 
then stood before the countr}', would be used to strengthen the anti-slavery 
movement, that I attempted to have General Scott nominated rather than 
Taylor. Immediately after the nomination of the latter, I was surprised to 
discover that Mr. Seward's special friends, though they had been ostensibly 
against General Taylor, were really gratified by his nomination. 

To show how the desire to beat the Democratic party I'estrained the action 
of the Northern W^higs, in their anti-slavery movements, I republish a letter 
written for the following reason : Mr. Erastus Brooks, of the New York 
Express, had a controversy with Mr. Charles Francis Adams, then according 
to my recollection, publishing a newspaper of strong anti-slavery views, as 
to what would have been the course of the late ex-President John Quincy 
Adams, in the contest then in progress. Mr. Brooks, to sustain his position, 
called on me for a statement. What follows was published in the Express : 

THE LATE JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND GENERAL TAYLOR. 

[correspondence of the new YORK EXPRESS.] 

Washington, July 31, 1848. 

The Hon. D. P. King and Charles Hudson, of Massachussetts, have both 
written letters in answer to certain inquiries propounded to them as to the 
views of John Quincy Adams touching General Taylor and the Presidency. 
In a previous letter I had occasion to speak of these opinions, but not until 
I saw an attempt to discredit what Mr. Adams had said. I send you now a 
further confirmatory letter from another member of Congress — one with 
whom Mr. Adams was in frequent communication, and who shared his confi- 
dence and friendship. The letter not only shows no hostility to General 



( 228 ) 

Taylor, but an agreeable auticiijation in his expected nomination and election. 
It shows, also, the far-reaching sagacity of the " old man eloquent " in pre- 
dicting a result so soon to be ratified by the popular will: 

Letter from Hon. T. L. GUngman., of North Carolina. 

House of Repkesextatives, July 31, 1848. 

Sir : Your note has just been received, in which you state that you 
have learned from the Hon. Messrs. King and Hudson that I remem- 
bered a conversation with Mr. Adams on the subject of General Taylor's 
election as President, and express a desire that I would detail the substance 
of what he said as nearly as I can remember it. 

The conversation to v-'^ch I presume they referred occurred under the fol- 
lowing circumstances: It so happened that Mr. Adams and myself were 
among the first members to arrive at this city, previous to the assembling of 
the present Congress. A few days before the commencement of the session 
he paid me a visit at my lodgings. As the day was cloudy and cold, while I 
assisted him in from his carnage, T could not forbear expressing my surprise 
at seeing him from home in such weather. He replied, that when the 
weather was bad, he always rode in his cai'riage; but that at other times he 
walked a good deal. His advanced age and ai)parent frailty made me deeply 
sensible that, by his visit, he was paying me a compliment that he would 
soon be ixnable to offer to any one. 

He must have remained with me nearly an hour, and, notwithstanding his 
extreme debility, he expressed his views with a clearness and force that sur- 
prised me. It having been reported just previously that he had declared it 
his purpose to support the Administration in the conquest and acquisition of 
the whole of Mexico, I was the more desirous to hear his opinion on this 
and other topics connected Avith it ; so, in the earlier parts of the conversa- 
tion, I purposely avoided, intimating any opinion which might in any manner 
tend to induce him to modify the expression of his views, I have no reason 
to doubt but that, in that conversation, frank and communicative as he was, 
he expressed his views fully and without reserve. Though it would be 
impossible for me to give from memory the whole of that conversation, yet 1 
cannot be mistaken in relation to its general import and substance, while par- 
ticular expressions are strongly impressed on my recollection. 

Of the war and its authors he spoke in strong terms of condemnation. 
"They," he said, referring to the friends of the Administration, "expect me 
to speak on the war, but I am not a going to do it," This was said with 
peculiar emphasis. " If," he added, " I were to speak, I should have to dis- 
cuss slavery, and that would do harm." He then went on to say that he was 
iov peace, and that the proper way to obtain peace was to turn out of power 
the present Administration. He then spoke of the presidential election, and 
said that General Taylor would be the candidate of the Whigs, I suggested 
that some persons were waiting for a further expression of General Taylor's 
views. He instantly replied: "Oh, he is a Whig;" or "I have no doubt but 
that he is a Whig;" and, while speaking of the probable nomination, he 
said: "The South, I take it, will be for him, and part of the North," and he 
added that he had no doubt that he would be the nominee of the party. 
Though I do not recollect any particular expression of preference to General 
Taylor over the other Whigs spoken of as probable candidates, yet I cannot 
be mistaken in saying that he had a settled conviction that he would be the 
candidate of the party, and that he expressed a strong desire for its success. 



( 229 ) 

In fact he seemed to be as strongly identified in his feelings and views with 
the Whig party, and as anxious for its triumph, fis he used to be in 
1844, when Mr. Clay was the candidate. I was even surprised to hear him 
express a determination to refrain from discussing the subject of slavery, in 
which he usually manifested so much interest, lest by speaking on it he 
should jeopard the success of the party. Subsequently, during the month of 
January, at his own house, he referred to the subject, and said: "I did not 
intend to speak upon it, but I owe you one for that speech the other day," 
alluding to my speech on the slave question. On my replying that I hoped 
he would leave that among his unpaid debts, he laughed and reiterated his 
determination not to speak upon the subject during the session. 

In conclusion, allow me to say that I have not the slightest doubt but that, 
were he living at this day, he would be a cordial and earnest supporter of 
General Taylor's election. 

Very respectfully, yours, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

Erastus Brooks, Esq. 

This shows that Mr. Adams was so strong a party man that, during that 
session, the last in which he served, he forebore to speak on the great slaverj^ 
issue, lest he might jeopardize the success of his party. From frequent con- 
versations with him at previous sessions, I was satisfied that there was not on 
the floor of the House a member more thoroughly hostile to the Democratic 
party than he was. 

It may not be out of place for me here to refer to a circumstance, which 
occurred during the Spring of 1848, that ought to be stated as an act of 
justice to Mr. Calhoun. In common with many others, up to that time, I had 
believed that Mr. Calhoun's course had been influenced by a desire to dissolve 
the Union, but what then occurred satisfied me that I had done him injustice. 
As a means of settling the slavery agitation, what was known as the Clayton 
Compromise, was brought forward. It was not only fiercely assailed by the 
Northern Whigs, who desired no settlement, and who vehemently declared 
to the Southern members of the party, that if the measure should pass, it 
would secure the election of General Cass, but as it fell short of doing the 
South full justice, many Southern Whigs were disinclined to support it. 

During its pendency in the Senate, General Waddy Thompson, an intimate 
personal friend, called one morning to see me. He said he wnshed to consult 
me about a matter of importance, and remarked, "I am just fi'om Calhoun, 
with whom I have had a full conversation. He says, if you and Toombs 
and Stephens and Preston (of Virginia) and Cabell will unite with him and 
his friends, in an address to the people of the South, asking them to join, 
without distinction of party, in holding a convention, to insist on a proper 
recognition of their rights, he will, this morning, in the Senate, take ground 
against the Clayton Compromise, and defeat it, for he is satisfied that it does 
not do justice to the South; but, unless you are willing to do this, he is 
convinced that nothing better can be done at this time, and says this measure 
will, for the present, at least, settle the agitation, and, for a time, give peace 
to the country, and that we must trust to the future." Though this attempt 
was not made, and Mr. Calhoun assisted in passing the measure through the 
Senate, yet the proposition from him satisfied me thiat Mr. Calhoun was really 
a friend of the Union on the principles of the Constitution. To a man, 
'desirous of disunion, agitation of course was desirable. The fact that he 
was willing to assist in passing a measure that fell short of doing justice to 
his section, because it would put an end to the agitation, and for a time, at 



(280) 

least, give quiet to the country, was, to my mind, decisive that he did not 
desire a dissohition of the Union. I subsequently referred to this matter on 
the floor of the Senate. 

In view of the much more objectionable and disastrous scheme, adopted in 
1850, it is much to be deplored that the Clayton Compromise was defeated in 
the House by the aid of several Southern Whigs, who were misled by the 
pressure brought to bear on them by their Northern party associates, who 
affirmed that if the measure passed, it would elect Cass and destroy the Whig 
party in the North, They, too, declared in the strongest language again and 
again, that if the Southern Whigs would only aid them in defeating this 
scheme, which they pronounced a mere democratic trick to enable them to 
carry their candidate, they would, immediately after the election, aid us in 
passing a liberal and just measure. These promises were made repeatedly 
in my hearing, but I had seen by this time too much of their insincerity on 
this question to put any reliance on their assurances. 



[The controversy in relation to the Mexican territory had been kept up 
throughout the years 1848 and 1849. The position of General Taylor in the 
canvass had enabled the Northern whigs to obtain a great preponderance in 
the election of members of Congress, aided as they had been most materially 
by the candidacy of Mr. Van Buren as the representative of the free soil 
party. This result had been produced in so quiet a manner that the people 
of the South of both parties had remained, to a great extent, in profound 
ignorance of the situation. 

In the autumn of 1849 I was traveling in the interior of some of the 
Northern States, and for the first time realized the extent of the anti-slavery 
movement. On my return to Washington, I found my Senatorial colleague, 
Mr. Mangum, there. I stated to him that as far as I could ascertain the entire 
Whig delegation from the North were understood to be pledged to the aboli- 
tion of slavery in the District of Columbia, and the application of the Wilmot 
proviso to all the Mexican territory. Also, that not only would the Buffalo 
platform or Van Buren Democrats act with them, -but that the supporters of 
General Cass, disappointed as they had been, were disinclined to make a 
longer stmggle, and were not unwilling that the Wilmot proviso, tfcc, should 
be passed and presented to General Taylor for his signature. Mr. Mangum 
seemed very much surprised on hearing my statement and said : " Foote," 
(meaning Senator Foote, of Mississippi,) " was here the other day and made 
a similar statement, but I supposed he must be excited without sufficient 
cause, and must have greatly exaggerated the condition of affairs at the 
North;" and suggested tome that I had better see Senator Foote. 

On meeting him a few days later on the street, Mr. Foote said he was fully 
assured that the free soil Democrats and the Whigs of the North would, imme- 
diately after the assembling of Congress, pass the Wilmot proviso. That 
Cass' friends, some of them from vexation and others because they regarded 
further resistance to the anti-slavery current as hopeless, would make no 
serious struggle against the passage of the measure. He said that he felt 
satisfied that the Virginia Senators, Messrs. Mason and Hunter, would at once 
retire, and go to Richmond and report to the Legislature, which would then- 
be in session, and that as Virginia as well as the other Southern States had 
declared that the exclusion of the South from all the Mexican acquisition 



(231) 

would present a case for resistance, such action would then be taken as to dis- 
solve the Union within six weeks after the meeting of Congress. I replied 
that if proper pains were taken to inform the people of the South of the 
danger, there would be such a manifestation of feeling and purpose that it 
would produce a reaction in the North, which would lead to a just settlement 
of the question involved, and give a permanent peace to the IJnion. 

Senator Foote in a day or two addressed a letter to me, to which I replied in 
the following words: 

Reply of Mr. Clingman to Mr. Foote. 

City of Washington, November 13, 1849. 

Dear Sir: Yours of the 10th instant has been received, in which you ask 
my own views, as well as my opinion, as to what will be the course of the 
South in either of the contingencies referred to. Your ))osition as a Represen- 
tative of one of the States, and the consideration due you personally merit 
alike a prompt reply. 

Having on former occasions given my views in detail with reference to the 
whole subject, it is not necessary for me to do so at this time. I proceed, 
therefore, to give you simply the general results of my reflections. 

The Federal Government, because it is the government of the United States, 
is the trustee and agent for all tlie States and their citizens. Every power, 
therefore, which it can rightfully exercise, it must of necessity exercise for the 
benefit of all the parties to it. The territory of the United States being the 
common property, the government is bound to administer it as far as practi- 
cable for the benefit of all the States as well as their citizens. A difference, 
however, exists among them in the institution of slavery. When the Consti- 
tution was formed twelve of the thirteen States were slaveholding. That 
instrument, though it has clauses expressly inserted for the protection of the 
rights and interest of slaveholders, contains no provision for the abolition of 
slavery anywhere. If the government, therefore, can properly exercise such 
a power in any instance, it must be because its duties as a general agent, 
acting so as to meet the interest and views of its principals, require it. But 
fifteen of the thirty States of the Union Still maintain the institution of 
slavery. It is obvious, therefore, that the government could not, consistently 
with its powers as a general agent exclude the slaveliolders as a class from all 
participation in the enjoyment of the territory of the United States. It is, on 
the contrary, under solemn obligations to respect the rights of all. It has 
always heretofore, as I understand its action, shown a sense of this obligation. 
When the much talked of ordinance was adopted, by which the territory north 
of the Ohio river was made free, all that portion of country south of the river 
to the Gulf of Mexico was left to be occupied by slaveholders. When slavery 
was abolished in the northern pail of the Louisiana territory, the southern 
portion, regarded as the most suitable for slaveholders, was left to be so 
occupied. On the annexation of Texas, when a provision against slavery 
north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, was incorporated, much the larger and more 
valuable portion was left still for the use of slaveholders. 

But it is now proposed to adopt the policy of excluding slaveholders, as 
such, from all the territory of the United States. This would be an entire 
revolution in the action of the government — a revolution which could not 
occur without a total violation of the spirit and essence of the Constitution. 
Since those citizens who do not own slaves are permitted to occupy every 
part of the territory of the Union, it has been doubted by many whether the 
government can rightfully exclude slaveholders from any portion of the 



(232) 

common property. But even if there should be a power to divide the public 
territory for convenience between the two classes, it is perfectly clear that 
there can be no right to exclude one class entirely. I have heretofore said 
that I should regard such an exclusion as being as great a violation of the 
Constitution as the government could possibly commit. But oven if this 
action should be viewed simply as an enormous abuse of power, it would be 
not the less objectionable. The government has unlimited powers in relation 
to the establishment of post-offices throughout the Union. If, however, it 
were to withdraw all the post-offices from the slaveholding States on the 
ground that the citizens of those States were not worthy of the countenance 
and aid of the government, we should have as much reason to complain of 
such action as if it involved a clear infraction of the letter of the Constitution. 

In a word, if the government should adopt the policy of excluding slave- 
holders, as such, from all the territory of the United States, it would, in sub- 
stance and effect, cease to be tlie government of the United States. While 
the form of the constitution might remain the same, its character would be 
essentially changed. 

Ought the Southern States to acquiesce in this great organic change in 
our political system? Ought they to remain members of an association 
which had, in utter disregard of plain constitutional guarantees, degraded 
them from their position of equality? As history furnishes no record of any 
people who have prospered after they had forfeited their self-respect, by 
submitting to be degraded to a state of political vassalage, I hold it to be 
the duty of the Southern States to resist this change. That resistance, to be 
effectual, should be commensurate with the violence of the attack. This 
they owe to the cause of constitutional liberty, to justice, and their own 
honor. 

With reference to the abolition of slavery, in the District of Columbia, I 
will simply say that, waiving all controversy in relation to constitutional 
right, and obligation to the adjoining States, if such an event were to occur 
at this time, it would not take place in obedience to the wishes of the citizens 
of the District, but would be brought about at the instance of the inhabitants 
of the States. But these persons have no right to control the local affairs 
of this District. Should Congress, therefore, thus act at their instigation, it 
would be gnilty of an act of tyranny so insulting and so gross as to justify 
a withdrawal of confidence from such a government. 

You ask, ill the second place, what I believe likely to be the course of the 
South should such a contingency occur ? There was but one of the States 
having any considerable number of slaves in relation to which I had any 
doubts. From her frontier position, and the powerful influences brought to 
bear on her, I had some fears as to what might be the action of Kentucky. 
But I have been gratified, beyond expression, by the gallant stand which that 
noble State has recently taken. She has thereby shown that she will not 
abandon her sisters in the hour of danger, but that she will, if necessary, 
take the front rank in the struggle for the preservation of the rights and 
liberties of the white race of the South. Tlie union of both parties in Mis- 
sissippi is a type of what will occur elsewhere. The Southern States ought 
to have but one feeling on this question, as they c9,n have but one destiny. 
I have no doubt but that over the entire South there would be a vastly 
greater unanimity than existed in the old thirteen slave States, when they 
decided to resist British aggression. If a few individuals should attempt to 
take a different course, they would be swept away in the general current. 
Long before the struggle should come to the worst, the South would present 
an unbroken front. 



(233) 

I am not unaware, sir, that in making so brief and concise a statement of 
my views I incur the risk of misconception and misrepresentation, but I 
should feel that I did not appreciate the momentous nature of the subject if 
I could attach consequence to mere personal considerations. 
Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 
Hon. H. S. FooTE. 

P. S. — Since the above letter was written, it has been submitted to my 
colleague, Mr. Mangum, and he concurs fully in all its general conclusions, 
and avows his purpose to make known his views at length at an early day, 
ami entertains the opinion that the Federal Government has no power to 
1 gislate on the subject of slavery either in the States or Territories, and 
that all the pi*ecedents, whether legislative or judicial, because adopted 
without due consideration, are not obligatory. T. L. C. 

These letters were, at my request, but with much reluctance on the part of 
Mr. Gales, published in the Ncitional Litelligencer. I say reluctance, not 
because Mr. Gales was at all desirous of seeing the Union dissolved, or even 
a serious collision. It is true that he had strong English feelings against 
slavery, but party considerations were probably even more potent than these 
prejudices. This paper had the full confidence of the Southern Whigs, and 
its utterances were accepted by most of their papers in the South. The 
Intelligencer constantly represented the Northern people as most conservative 
in their views, and insisted that the abolitionists were but a handful of 
agitators, &c. The people of the South were thus left in the most profound 
ignorance of the danger that was imi)ending. The few Southern men who 
went North remained in the large cities, came in contact with no anti-slavery 
men, and were assured by such gentlemen as they met of their personal and 
political friendship, &c. 

In my conversation with Mr. Gales, I urged him to change his course, unless 
he wished the people of both sections to be placed in the position of a body 
of troops suddenly exposed to heavy masked batteries. It was in vain that I 
pressed himjto take a different view and by warning the country of the danger, 
avert it. He reminded me of a horse frightened by a stump at a distance, 
and while keephig his attention fixed on it, and shying oif, falling into a ditch 
on the opposite side. My earnest efforts made no impression on him, and but 
for his strong personal friendship for me, I doubt if I could have induced 
him to publish the letters. 

The fact that Mr. Foote and I had previously represented the extremes of 
the two parties, and that the coi'respondence was brief, caused the letters to 
be generally republished over the country. With the exception of a few 
persons, the people of most of the Southern States were profoundly ignorant 
of approaching peril. Their condition might be likened to that of the crew of 
a ship floating lazily in a gentle breeze with all sails set, in the presence of 
an approaching tropical white squall. Surprise was created, with some 
anxiety, and there began to be popular manifestations of a determination to 
resist these measures. 

As the session approached nearer, there were developed additional reasons 
for anxiety. An evening or two before its commencement, on meeting Mr. 
Foote he said to me, " I fear you will have to give up your hope of saving 
the Union, for the case seems more and more threatening." On my express- 
ing dissenting opinion, he added, " Well, you have high authority on your side, 
30 



( 234 ) 

for I have just received a letter from Mr. Calhoun in which he says that the 
stand the South is now beginning to take will save the Union." 

As soon as Mr. Toombs and Mr. Stephens arrived I sought an early inter- 
view with them. The position they might take was especially important 
because they had been original, independent Taylor men, and ought, there- 
fore, to be able to exercise much influence over the administration. Meeting 
them together one morning I gave them a statement of the condition of 
political matters in the North. They seemed surprised as to the extent of 
the danger. When I- saw them on the next day, Mr. Toombs said, " If you 
are right in your impressions, and I have no doubt but that you are, we had 
better make the issue at once on the election of speaker." I replied that I 
did not regard this as wise, because the issue was too small an one; that we 
could not make our views known and our purpose might be misunderstood. 

When the Whig caucus met, Mr. Toombs, in pursuance of his policy, 
offered a resolution, in substance, declaring that the Congress ought not to 
take action on the slavery issues. During the discussion of it, Mr. Brooks, 
of New York, said that he, and his colleague, Mr. Briggs, had had a confer- 
ence and agreed that they would not at that, the first session of Congress, vote 
to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. He would, however, make no 
pledge as to his course at the second session, nor agree to vote against the 
Wilmot proviso. No other member from the North said even this much, 
but as far as they spoke, during the evening, they all admitted that either by 
the resolutions in the convention in which they had been nominated, or by 
their own declarations, they had been pledged to put the Wilmot proviso on 
all the Tei-ritories, and also to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, 
and wherever the government had jurisdiction. 

It must be remembered that three-fourths of those elected as Whigs to the 
Congress came from the North, for though only eighty-four of them 
attended our caucuses, yet there were about a half-dozen, formerly Whigs, 
elected partly, as free-soilers also, and who on all the slavery issues were 
even in advance of the other Whigs. It was their refusal to vote for Mr. 
Winthrop that defeated him. Substantially, the party in the House of Repre- 
sentatives stood ninety anti-slavery members from the North, and thirty 
members from the South. 

There was a long contest for the speakership, which terminated in the 
election of the Hon. Howell Cobb, by a plurality vote, over the Hon. Robert 
C. Winthrop. Immediately after the organization of the House, the speech 
of the twenty-second of January, 1850, was made. The object being to 
arrest the attention of the people of the country, and cause them to realize 
the impending danger, I sought to present the case as strongly as possible. 
Such was the imminence of peril, that I saw that there was but one mode of 
arresting it, and that was by the most earnest appeals, and as strong a state- 
ment as the truth would warrant.] 



SPEECH 

IN DEFENCE OF THE SOUTH AGAINST THE AGGRESSIVE 
MOVEMENT OF THE NORTH, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE 
OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 22, 1850. 

The House being ia Committee of the Whole, on the state of the Union, Mr. Boyd, 
of Kentucky, in the chair : 

Mr. Clingman said, that the committee was well aware that he had, 
on yesterday, intimated a purpose to discuss the questions involved in 
the propositions relating to the Mexican territory. That subject was 
regarded by the whole country as one of such immense importance 
that he offered no apology for debating it. To prevent misconception, 
(said he) I say in advance, that I have great confidence in the judg- 
ment, integrity and patriotism of the President. I further admit fully 
the right of the citizens of each State to settle for themselves all such 
domestic questions as that referred to in the message. But who are 
the people entitled so to decide, as well as the time and manner of 
admission and boundary of new States, are in themselves questions for 
the judgment of Congress under all the circumstances of each case. 
The territory of Louisiana, our first foreign acquisition, was retained 
nearly ten years in that condition before it was allowed to form a State 
Constitution. In the case of Texas — her people being composed 
almost entirely of citizens of the United States, and having had a State 
government of their own for ten years — she was admitted at once as a 
State into the Union. In the present case, there are considerations of 
the greatest importance connected directly and indirectly with our 
action on this subject. While adverting to them, as fully as the time 
limited by our rules will admit, I ask the attention of the House. 

With reference to this matter, I was placed at a disadvantage before 
the country by a publication made some time since. It is generally 
known that there was, on the Saturday evening before the time for the 
assembling of the House, a preliminary meeting or caucus of the Whig- 
members. The proceedings of such meetings have usually been kept 
private. Contrary, however, to the former usage in this respect, some 
individual present furnished to one of the New York papers what pur- 
ported to be a report of the proceedings. This report being in some 
respects authentic, was copied into other papers. The writer gave very 
full}'- the speeches of those persons whose views coincided with his 
own; but, though he made a reference to my position, he did not 
think proper to set out what I did say, so as to make that position at 
all understood. It will be remembered by those present on that occa- 
sion, that, at the very outset of my remarks, I stated that I had that 
morning had a very full and free conference with the gentleman from 
Georgia, (Mr. Toombs,) who had moved the resolution; that there was, 



( 236 ) 

in relation to the whole subject embraced in it, as well as with refer- 
ence to the mode of action proper to be adopted by the South, an entire 
agreement between that gentleman and myself In fact, that there was 
not, as far as I knew, any difference of opinion between us, except as 
to the expediency of making the issue at that time, and that I thought 
it preferable to await legislative action and stand on the defensive 
purely. This, among other reasons then given, induced me to request 
the withdrawal of the resolution. It is proper that I should say that, 
in m}' interview that morning with the gentleman from Georgia, and 
will) his colleague, (Mr. Stephens,) I gave my reasons at length, founded 
chiefly on my recent observation of the state of public sentiment in the 
North, for believing that a collision was inevitable, and that the 
sooner it came on the better for all parties; but that to enable us to 
make our demonstration in the most imposing and successful mode, 
it would be better to await the organization of the House. I expressed 
the fear that if we moved without the concurrence at the outset of a 
majorit}^ of the Southern members, we might place ourselves at a dis- 
advantage_before the public, and prevent our uniting the whole South 
in such a course of action as it might be found expedient to adopt. 

Looking over the whole ground, however, I am not at all dissatisfied 
with the course which things took. There has been no such division 
at the South as would be at all likely to impair efficient action here- 
after. From the tone of the Southern press, as well as from otlier indi- 
cations, it is obvious that the South will, at an early day, be sufficiently 
united to insure the success of whatever measures it may be necessary 
to adopt to protect ourselves from the aggression menaced by the 
North. As to the election of a Speaker, in the present condition of the 
House and the country, I have never considered it of the slightest 
moment to either political party, or to either section of the Union. A 
Speaker without a majority of the House would be of no advantage to 
the administration, nor could any mere arragement of committees 
materially aff'ect now the action on the slave question. 

Those, Mr. Chairman, who have observed my course heretofore, 
know well that I have not sought to produce agitation on this subject. 
Six years ago, when I first took a seat on this floor, believing that the 
famous twenty-first rule had been gotten up merely as a fancy matter, 
which was productive only of ill feeling and irritation between differ- 
ent sections, I both voted and spoke against it, and was then regarded 
as responsible to a great extent for its defeat. I then stated, during 
the discussion, that if without cause we kept up a state of hostility 
between the North and the South, until a practical question arose like 
that presented when Missouri was admitted, (for I then saw the Texas 
annexation in the future,) the "greatest possible mischief might ensue," 
I went on also, in the course of my argument, to say that slavery could 
not be abolished in this district without a dissolution of the Union. 
Two years since, when it had become certain that we were at the close 
of the then existing war to obtain territory, I endeavored to place the 
question on grounds where the North might meet us; conceding, for 
the sake of argument, that the government had complete jurisdiction 
over the territory. I endeavored to show, that while it might be jus- 



• (237) 

tified in dividing the territoi'y, it could not exclude us from the whole 
without a palpable violation of the Constitution. I am sorry to say, 
liowever, that my effort, though well meant, did not produce the slightest 
effect upon the action of any one gentleman of my own party from the 
North. On this side of the House, they regularly voted that the North 
should have the whole of the territory, and went against any compro- 
mise. I regret to be compelled to say that instead of showing them- 
selves in any respect conservative, as I used to consider them, the 
Northern Whig members proved themselves, on this, the great ques- 
tion, eminently destructive. 

To those gentlemen from the North, who aided us in an attempt to 
settle the question in some manner not disgraceful or destructive to 
us, I tender my thanks. In standing by the rights of the South, they 
have shown themselves friends of the Constitution and of the Union. 

Sir, the force and extent of the present anti-slavery movement of 
the North is not understood by the South. Until within the last few 
months, I had supposed that even if California and New Mexico 
should come in as free States, the agitation would subside so as to 
produce no further action. A few months' travel in the interior of the 
North has changed my opinion. Such is now the condition of public 
sentiment there, that the making of the Mexican territory all free, in 
any mode, would be regarded as an anti-slavery triumph, and would 
accelerate the general movement against us It is not difficult to per- 
ceive how that state of public sentiment has been produced there. 
The old abolition societies have done a good deal to poison the popular 
mind. By circulating an immense number of inflammatory pamphlets, 
filled with all manner of falsehood and calumny against the South, 
its institutions, and its men, because there was no contradiction in that 
quarter, they had created a high degree of prejudice against us. As 
soon as it became probable that there would be an acquisition of terri- 
tory, the question at once became a great practical one, and the poli- 
ticians immediately took the matter in hand. With a view at once of 
strengthening their position, they seized upoo all this matter which 
the abolition societies (whose aid both parties courted in the struggle) 
had furnished from time to time, and diffused and strengthened it as 
much as possible, and thereby created an immense amount of hostility 
to Southern institutions. Everything there contributes to this move- 
ment; candidates are brought out by the caucus system, and if they 
fail to take that sectional ground which is deemed strongest there, 
they are at once discarded. The mode of nominating candidates, as 
well as of conducting the canvass, is destructive of anything like inde- 
pendence in the representative. They do not, as gentlemen often do 
in the South and West, take ground against the popular clamor, and 
sustain themselves by direct appeals to the intelligence and reason of 
their constituents. Almost the whole of the Northern press co-operated 
in the movement, with the exception of the New York Ilercdd (which 
with its large circulation, published matter on both sides,) and a few 
other liberal papers, everything favorable to the South has been care- 
fully excluded from the Northern papers. By these combined efforts, 



(238) 

a degree of feeling and prejudice has been gotten up against the South, 
which is most intense in all the interior. 

I was surprised last winter to hear a Northern Senator say, that iji 
the town in which he lived, it would excite great astonishment if 
it were known that a Northern lady would, at the time of the meeting 
of the two Houses, walk up to the capitol with a Southern Senator; 
that they had been taught to consider Southerners generally as being 
so coarse and ruffianly in manner that a lady would not trust herself 
in such a presence. This anecdote, sir, does not present too strong a 
picture of the condition of sentiment in portions of the interior of 
the Northern country. How far gentlemen on this floor are to be 
influenced in their action by such a state of opinion, I leave them to 
decide. 

The great principle upon which the Northern movement rests, which 
is already adopted by most Northern politicians, and to which they 
all seem likely to be driven by the force of the popular current there, 
if the question is unsettled till the next Congressional election, is this: 
That the Government of the United States must do nothing to sanction 
slavery; that it must therefore exclude it from the territories; that it 
must abolish it in the District of Columbia, forts, and arsenals, and 
wherever it has jurisdiction. Some, too, carrying the principle to its 
extent, insist that the coasting slave trade, and that between the 
States, should also be abolished, and that slave labor should not be 
tolerated in a public office of the United States, such as custom-houses, 
post-offices, and the like. As these things all obviously rest on the 
same general dogma, it is clear that the yielding of one or more points 
would not check, but would merely accelerate, the general movement 
to the end of the series. Before this end was reached, the}^ would 
probably append, as a corollary the principle that the President should 
not appoint a slave-holder to office. It is, sir, mj'- deliberate judgment 
that, in the present temper of the public mind at the North, if the ter- 
ritorial question remains open till the next election, few if any gentle- 
men will get here from the free States that are not pledged to the full 
extent of the abolition platform. It is, therefore, obviously the 
interest of all of us to settle this question at the present session. 

That the general principle, above stated, is at war with the whole 
spirit of the Constitution of the United States, which sanctions slaver}'' 
in several of its provisions, I need not argue here. Taking, however, 
a practical view of the matter in controversy, look for a moment at 
the territorial question, the great issue in the struggle. I will do 
Northern gentlemen on this floor the justice to admit that they have 
argued themselves into the belief that they are right in claiming the 
whole of the territory for free soil. Let me state, for a moment, the 
converse, or opposite of their proposition. Suppose it were to be 
claimed that no one should be allowed to go into this public territory, 
unless he carried one or more slaves with him, it might then be said, 
just as gentlemen now tell us, that it would be perfectly fair, because 
it placed every man who might be inclined to go there on an equal 
footing, and might, by means of making thus a homogeneous popu- 
lation, advance the general interest. Northern men would at once, 



(239) 

I suppose, object to this arrangement. Then we should say to them, 
if you do not like this restriction, let it be settled, then, that every 
citizen of the United States ma}' go into the common territory, and 
carry slaves or not, just as he pleases. This would seem to be a perfectly 
equitable and fair arrangement. Northern men, however, object to this, 
and say that they are not willing to live in a territory where others 
own slaves. Then we, of the South, say to them, that we will consent to 
divide the territory, and limit our possession with slaves to a part of it, 
and allow them to go at will over the whole. Even to this they object, 
and insist that they will not allow us to occupy one foot of the terri- 
tory. Remember, sir, that this very territory was acquired by conquest, 
and that while the South, according to its population, would have 
been required to furnish only one-third of the troops, it in point of 
fact did furnish two-thirds of the men that made the conquest. And 
the North, deficient as it was comparatively in the struggle, now says 
that its conscience, or its cupidity, will not permit us to have the 
smallest portion of that territory. Why, sir, this is the most im2nfdent 
proposition that was ever maintained by any respectable body of men. 

Sir, I give the North full credit for its feelings in favor of liberty. I 
can well suppose that Northern gentlemen would resist, in the most 
emphatic manner, the attempt to make any man who is now free a 
slave; but I regard them as too intelligent to believe that humanity, 
either to the slave or the master, requires that they should be pent up 
within a territory which, after a time, will be insufficient for their 
subsistence, and where they must perish from want, or from the col- 
lisions that would occur between the races. Nor can I suppose that 
they think it would be injurious to New Mexico and California for our 
people to go and settle among them. Prominent Northern statesmen, 
both in this House and in the Senate, have described the population 
of those Territories, and have represented it as being not only inferior 
to those Indian tribes that we know most of, viz: the Cherokees and 
Choctaws, but as being far below the Flat Heads, Black Feet, and Snake 
Indians. I cannot, therefore, suppose that they really believe that 
those Territories would be injured by having infused into them such 
a state of society as produces such persons as George Washington, 
John Marshall, and thousands of other great and virtuous men, living 
and dead. Your opposition to our right will be regarded as resting 
on the lust for political power of your politicians, or on the rapacity of 
your people. 

The idea that the conquered people should be permitted to give law 
to the conquerors, is so preposterously absurd, that I do not intend to 
argue it. Doubtless these people would be willing, not only to exclude 
slaveholders, but all other Americans, if, by a simple vote they were 
allowed to do so. I may remark further, that, but for the anti-slavery 
agitation, our Southern slaveholders would have carried their negroes 
into the mines of California in such numbers, that I have no doubt 
but that the majority there would have made it a slaveholding State. 
We have been deprived of all chance of this by the Northern move- 
ments, and by the action of this House, which has, by Northern votes, 
repeatedly, from time to time, passed the Wilmot proviso, so as in effect 



(240) 

to exclude our institutions, without the actual passage of a law for that 
purpose. It is a mere farce, therefore, without giving our people time 
to go into the country, if,they desire to do so, to allow the individuals 
there by a vote, to exclude a whole class of our citizens. This would 
imply that the territory belonged to the people there exclusively, and 
not to all the people of the United States. 

Compared with this great question, the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia is of little relative moment. One effect, however, 
of the anti-slavery agitation here is worthy of a passing notice. 
Within the last two years, since the matter has become serious, it has 
seemed not improbable that the seat of government might be removed 
from the District. As this would be extremely prejudicial to the 
interests of the citizens here, many of them have so far changed in 
their feelings as to be willing to allow slavery to be abolished, yielding 
to the force of the pressure from the North ; besides so many of their 
slaves are from time to time taken away by the Abolitionists, as to 
satisfy them that such property here is almost worthless. A great 
impression was made on them b}'- the coming in lastyear of a Northern 
ship, and its carrying away seventy slaves at once. Seeing that there 
was no chance of getting Congress to pass any adequate law for their 
protection as most of the States have done, they seem to be forced to 
assent to some extent to the Northern movement. Sir, it is most surpris- 
ing that the people of the Southern States should have borne with so lit- 
tle complaint, the loss of their slaves incurred by the action of the free 
States. The Constitution of the United States provided for the deliv- 
ery of all such fugitives, and Congress passed an act to carry it into 
effect; but recently, most, if not all of the Northern States, have com- 
pletely defeated their provisions, by forbiding any one of their citizens 
to aid in the execution of the law, under the penalty of fine and 
imprisonment for as long a term usually as five years. There is probably 
no one legal mind in any one of the free States which can regard these 
laws as constitutional. For though the States are not bound to legis- 
late affirmatively in support of the Constitution of the United States, 
yet it is clear that they have no right to pass laws to obstruct the exe- 
cution of constitutional provisions. Private citizens are not usually 
bound to be active in execution of the law ; but if two or more com- 
bine to prevent the execution of any law, they are subject to indict- 
ment for conspiracy in all countries where the common law doctrines 
prevail. If the several States could rightfully legislate to defeat the 
action of Congress, they might thereb}^ completely nullify most of its 
laws. In this particular instance such has been the result; for, though 
the master is allowed to go and get his negro if he can, yet, in point of 
fact, it is well known that the free negroes, Abolitionists, and other 
disorderly persons, acting under the countenance and authority of the 
State laws, are able usually to overpower the master and prevent his 
recapture. 

The extent of the loss to the South may be understood from the 
fact, that the number of runaway slaves now in the North is stated as 
being thirty thousand ; worth, at present prices, little short of fifteen 
millions of dollars. Suppose that amount of property was taken away 



1241) 

from the North by the Southern States acting against the Constitution ; 
what complaint would tliere not be; what memorials, remonstrances, 
and legislative resolutions would come down upon us? How would 
this hall be filled with lobby members, coming here to press their 
claims upon Congress? Why, sir, many of the border counties in the 
slaveholding States have been obliged to give up their slaves almost 
entirely. It was stated in the newspapers the other day, that a few 
counties named, in Maryland, had, by the efforts of tlie iVbolitionists 
within six months, upon computation, lost one hundred thousand dol- 
lars worth of slaves. A gentleman of the highest standing, from Del- 
aware, assured me the other day that that little State lost, each year, 
at least that value of such property in the same way. A hundred 
thousand dollars is a heavy tax to be levied on a single congressional 
district by the Abolitionists. 

Suppose a proportional burden was inflicted on the Northern States. 
How would Massachusetts bear the loss annually of one million one 
hundred thousand dollars, not only inflicted without law, but against 
an express provision of the Constitution ? We may infer from the 
complaint she has made of a slight inconvenience imposed on her by 
that regulation of South Carolina which prevented ship-captains from 
carrying free negro servants to Charleston. 

This whole action on the part of the North is not only in violation 
of the Constitution, but seems to be purely wanton, or originating in 
malice towards the South, It is obvious that they do not want our 
slaves among them ; because they not only make no adequate provis- 
ion for their comfort, but, in fact, in many of the States, have forbid- 
den free negroes to come among them on pain of imprisonment, &c. 
It cannot be a desire to liberate slaves, because they have never to my 
knowledge, attempted to steal negroes from Cuba or Brazil. It is true, 
however, that having the right now to come among us both by land 
and water, they have greater advantages and immunities. For if they 
went into a foreign country, they would incur the risk of being shot 
or hanged, as robbers and pirates usually are. 

Sir, if any evils have grown out of the existence of slavery, they 
have not at least affected the North. During the days of the slave 
trade, which (as I formerly had occasion to remark) was continued 
down to 1808 by New England votes in the Convention, the Northern 
ship-owners realized large profits by purchasing negroes on the coast 
of Africa at thirty or forty dollars per head, and selling them to South- 
ern planters for several hundred dollars. The bringing in of these 
slaves caused large tracts of the Southern country, too unhealthy to 
have been cleared by white men, to be brought under profitable culti- 
vation. The price of cotton has thereby been brought down from fifty 
to ten and even five cents per pound. An immense amount of capi- 
tal and labor is employed profitably in its manufacture at the North. 
In England, also, not less than six hundred millions of dollars is 
thus invested, and a vast population exists by being employed in the 
manufacture. It is ascertained that at least five millions of white per- 
sons, in Europe and this country, get their employment, are fed, and 
exist on the manufacture of cotton alone. The cheap Southern pro- 
31 



(242) 

duclion of the raw material not only is the means of thus giving sub- 
sistence to a great portion of the population of this country and 
Europe, but is clothing the world at a cheap rate. In addition to cotton, 
rice, sugar, coffee, tobacco, and various tropical productions, are supplied 
at a cheap rate for Northern consumption. On the other hand, our 
slaves seldom come in competition with Northern labor, and are good 
consumers of its productions. While the North has derived these 
great advantages, the negroes themselves have not been sufferers. 
Their condition not only compares most advantageously with that of 
the laborino population of the world, but is in advance of the position 
they have been able, at any time, to occupy at home. The researches 
of Gliddon and other antiquarians, show that four thousand years ago 
in Africa they were slaves, and as black as the}' now are. Since then, 
in that country where they were placed by Providence, and where, 
from their peculiar constitution, they enjoy the best health, they have 
existed only as savages. They are there continually made slaves by the 
men of more intelligent and enterprising races. Nor have they ever got- 
ten out of the tropical parts of Africa, except when they were carried as 
merchandise. It remains to be proved, however, yet to the world, 
that the negro, any more than the horse, can permanently exist, in a 
state of freedom, out of the tropical regions. Their decay at the North, 
as well as other circumstances which I have not time to detail, are 
ad verse, to the proposition. And yet, sir, the journals of the North, 
while they deny that the French and the Germans, the most enlight- 
ened of the continental nations of Europe, are capable of freedom, 
stoutly maintain that the negro is ; the negro, who has never any- 
where, when left to himself, gotten up to the respectable state of bar- 
barism which all the' other races have attained, not even excepting 
our Indians in Mexico and Peru. 

While the people of the Northern States and the negroes have been 
benefitted, I am not prepared to admit that the' South (if injured at 
all) has suffered as generally supposed. The influx of foreign emi- 
grants, and some other circumstances to which I will presently advert, 
have in some respecls put the North greatly ahead. But if you deduct 
the foreign population which goes chiefly to the North — tiie little we get 
not being equal to that portion of our own people who go to the North- 
western States ; if you deduct this, I say, it will be found that the white 
population of all the slaveholding States has increased faster than that 
of the free States. Owing to the comfortable condition of our popula- 
tion, if there had been no emigration from abroad, the descendants of 
our portion of the American white family would be more numerous than 
the Northern. Nor is it true that we are the poorer; on the contrary, 
if we are to take the valuations of property in the different States, as 
assessed by the public officers, it appears that the slaveholding States 
are much richer in proportion to their population than the free. Even 
if you exclude the negroes as property, and count them in the popula- 
tion, it appears that the citizens of Virginia — the oldest of the slave 
States — are richer per head than the citizens of any one of the free 
States. It will also appear that the slaveholding States have vastly 



( 243 ) 

less pauperism and crime than the Northern States. Looking, there- 
fore, at all these different elements, viz : greater increase of popula- 
tion, more wealth, and less poverty and crime, we have reason to regard 
our people as prosperous and ha})py. 

Sir, I have not, for want of time, gone into details on these points, 
but contented myself with the statement of those general views which 
every candid inquirer will, I am satisfied, find to be true. I do not 
seek to make comparisons that might be regarded as invidious, unless 
by way of defence against habitual attacks on us; but I regard it as 
right to say on this occasion, that whether considered with reference 
to the physical comfort of the people, or a high state of ]iublic and 
private morals, elevated sense of honor, and of all generous emotions, 
I have no reason to believe that a higher state of civilization either 
now exists elsewhere, or has existed at any time in the past, than is 
presented by the Southern States of the Union. 

When we look to foreign countries, these views are confirmed and 
sustained. Brazil, with a population of two slaves to one freeman, is 
the most prosperous of the South American States, and the only one 
which has a stable political system. Cuba is greatly in advance of the 
other West India islands, though St. Domingo and Jamaica once 
equalled her before the emancipation of their slaves. Besides the 
expense of maintaing her government at home, Cuba pays Spain a 
revenue of nearly fourteen millions. This is a greater sum for her 
population than two hundred millions would be for the United States. 
Could our people in addit^'on to the expense of our State governments, 
pay six times as much as the Federal government has ever yet raised 
by impost and taxes? That Cuba should be able to bear this burden 
and still prosper, is evidence of the high productiveness of the system. 

In spite, however, of these great facts, which ought to strike all 
impartial minds, the course of the North has been constantly aggres- 
sive on this question. The ordinance of 1787, adopted cotempora- 
neously with the Constitution, made the territory north of the Ohio 
free, and left that south of the river slaveholding, giving the North 
more than half of all the existing territory. When Lousiana was 
acquired, slavery could legally exist in in eVery part of it. The State 
of Missouri having formed a republican constitution, proposed to come 
into the Union, but the North resisted her application. Though her 
constitution recognising slavery was precisely like those of a majority 
of the old States, yet they, against all constitutional principle, because 
they had the power in one branch of Congress, obstinately refused her 
admission, until it was provided by act of Congress that no other slave 
State should exist north of 30 degrees 30 minutes. By that means, 
after leaving the South only territory for a single State, (Arkansas,) 
they acquired enough in extent to make ten or fifteen large States. 
Now, encouraged by their former success, and having become rela- 
tively stronger, they claim the whole of the territory. 

Should we give way, what is to be the result? California, Oregon, 
New Mexico, Deseret, and Minnesota, will come into the Union in less 
than five years, giving the North a clear majority of ten or fifteen 



(244) 

votes in the Senate. The census of the coming year will, under the 
new apportionment, give them nearl}' two to one in this House. With 
immense controlling majorities in both branches, will they not at 
once, by act of Congress, abolish slavery in the States? Mr. Adams, 
who, in his day, controlled Northern opinion on this C[uestion, said 
that there were twenty provisions of the Constitution which, under 
certain circumstances, would give Congress the power. Would not 
this majority find the power, as easily as they have done in their State 
Legislatures, where they have complete sway, to nullify the provision 
of the Constitution for the protection of fugitive slaves? Have not 
prominent Northern politicians of the highest positions and the greatest 
influence, whose names are well known to all gentlemen on this floor, 
already declared that there is nothing in the Constitution of the United 
States which obstructs or ought to obstruct the abolition of slavery 
by Congress in the States? Supposing, however, this should not 
occur, in tw^enty years or less, without new acquisitions of territory, 
they w^ould get the power, by the coming in of new free States, to 
amend the Constitution for that purpose. But I have no doubt, sir, 
that other acquisitions of territory will be made. Probably, after the 
next presidential election we shall get that part of Mexico which lies 
along the gulf, as far as Vera Cruz; and from which, though well 
suited to the profitable employment of slave labor, we should be 
excluded, nevertheless, by the adoption of the principle that slavery 
should not be extended in area. Conceding, however, that I am wrong 
in both these suppositions, and that Congress would neither violate 
the Constitution nor amend it thus, w^hat are we to expect? Slavery is 
to be kept, they say, where it now is; and we are to be surrounded with 
free States. These States not only prohibit the introduction of slaves, 
but also of free negroes, into their borders. Of course the whole negro 
population is to be hereafter confined to the territory of the present 
fifteen slave States. That population in twenty-five years will amount 
to seven or eight millions, and in fifty years to fifteen millions. How- 
ever dense the population might become, the negroes will not be gotten 
away, but the wealthier portion of the white population (I mean such 
as were able to emigrate) would leave the territory. The condition of 
the South would, for a time, be that of Ireland; and soon, by the 
destruction of the remnants of the white population, become that of 
St. Domingo. There are those now living who would probably see 
this state of things; but it would be certain to overtake our children 
or grandchildren. These facts are staring us in the face as distinctly 
as the sun in the heavens at noonday. Northern men not only admit 
it, but, constantly, in their public speeches, avow it to be their purpose 
to produce this very state of things. If we express alarm at the 
prospect, they seek to amuse us with eulogies on the blessings of the 
Federal Union, and ask us to be still for a time. They do Avell, for it 
is true that communities have usually been destroyed by movements 
which, in the beginning, inflicted no immediate injury, and which 
were therefore acquiesced in till the}' had progressed too far to be 
resisted. They have, too, constant examples in the conduct of brute 



( 245 ) 

animals, that do not struggle against evils until the}^ begin to feel 
pain. They are doubtless, also, encouraged to hope for our submis- 
sion on account of our acquiescence under their former wrongs. They 
know that the evils already inflicted on us, to which I have referred, 
greatly exceed in amount any injury that Great Britain attempted 
when she drove the colonies into resistance. Besides, sir, their aggres- 
sions have infinitely less show of constitutional right or color of 
natural justice. But what they now propose is too palpable even for 
Southern generosit3\ If after having been free for seventy years, the 
Southern States were to consent to be thus degraded and enslaved, 
instead of the pity, the}^ would meet the scorn and contempt of the 
universe. The men of this generation, who would be responsible, 
ought to be whipped through their fields by their own negroes. I 
thank God that there is no one in my district that I think so meanly 
of, as to believe that he would not readily come into whatever move- 
ment might be necessary for'the protection of our rights and liberty. 
I telj Northern gentlemen who are in hopes that the South will be 
divided, that we shall not have half as many traitors to hang as we 
did Tories in the Revolution. 

If gentlemen mean that the Union, upon the principles of the Con- 
stitution, is desirable, I will not controvert that opinion. But the 
Union never could have been formed without the written Constitution. 
So, if,you now, by your action, practically^ destroy the Constitution, those 
injured, if able to resist, will not submit. That instrument was 
ordained, in its own language, to "establish justice, insure domestic 
tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty" to all parties to it — 
namely, the freemen of the Union. If, therefore, under its form, gross 
injuctlce is done, insurrections excited, and the citizens of part of the 
States politically enslaved, then the Union ought not to stand, as an 
instrument of wrong and oppression. 

There is throughout the South a strong attachment to the Union of 
the States. This sentiment rests not so much upon any calculations of 
interest as on historic associations and the recollection of common 
ancestral struggles and triumph. Our people take a pride in the 
name of the United States, and in being members of a great republic 
that furnishes a cheering example to the friends of liberty throughout 
the world. But the events of the last few years are rapidly weakening 
this feeling. Seeing that there appeared to be a settled purpose in the 
North to put them to the wall, many of our people, regarding a disso- 
lution of the Union as the inevitable result of this aggression, have 
looked forward to the consequences of such a state of things. 

I will tell Northern gentlemen, in the hope that many of them are 
not yet past the point of reason, what is the view presented in prospect 
to many of the highest intellects in the South. It is well known that 
the existing revenue system operates hardly on the South and the 
West. The government raises upwards of thirty millions annually 
by a duty or tax upon imports. But this system acts very unequally 
on the different sections of the country. For illustration of the mode 
of operation, I will take a single article. Kailroad iron is produced 
in England at so cheap a rate, that it can be brought to this country 



(24G) 

and sold, we may say, for $40 per ton.* This is much cheaper than 
our people can afford to make it at. They therefore ask the govern- 
ment to require the payment of $20 per ton by way of dut3^ The 
importer, therefore, instead of selling for $40 per ton, must ask $60, to 
reimburse himself for what he has paid out abroad, and to the govern- 
ment. Every person, therefore, in the United States, who purchases 
railroad iron, has to pay $20 more for each ton. There are, however, 
some advantages to counterbalance this loss. In the first place, some 
of our people, finding that they can make a profit by selling railroad 
iron at $60 per ton, engage in the manufacture, and thus find employ- 
ment. While so engaged, these persons consume the produce of the 
farmers and others, and thus make a home market for agricultural 
productions. We see, however, that the loss of $20 per ton falls on all 
those in any part of the United States who may consume the iron. 
But the benefit is confined to those persons who are engaged in making 
iron, and those who live so near them that they can conveniently get 
their produce to tlie factories. In fact, this sort of manufacturing is 
confined to the State of Pennsylvania, and perhaps a few other locali- 
ties. But my constituents can no more pay the manufacturers of 
Pennsylvania for iron in the production of their farms, than they could 
the British iron-masters. It is therefore to our advantage, as we must 
pay for it in cash, to get the iron at the lowest rate. This is true of the 
Southern and Western people generally. This illustrates the effect of 
our revenue and protective system. The burden is diffused over the 
whole country, but the benefit is limited to the manufacturers and to 
those persons who reside so near as to have thereby a better market; 
very little more than one-third of the Union gets the benefit of the 
system, in exclusion mainly of the South and West. 

It is not easy to measure the precise extent of this burden. It has 
been estimated that two-thirds of all the articles which would, if 
imported, be subject to pay a duty, are produced in the United States. 
To return, for ready illustration, to the case of railroad iron. If two 
of every three tons of iron consumed in the United State were made in 
this country, it would follow that the person who consumed those three 
tons of iron, while he paid twenty dollars to the government on the 
ton imported, would pay forty dollars to the home manufacturer; and 
if he lived so far from the manufacturer that he could not pay him in 
produce, it would follow that, in fact, while he paid the government 
but twenty dollars, he would lose sixty himself on account of the duty. 
When, therefore, the government gets, as it is doing, thirty-three mil- 
lions of dollars revenue, the whole burden to the consumers of this 
country would be one hundred millions of dollars; of this amount the 
South pays, according to its population and consumption, forty mil- 
lions of dollars. This sum I think too low in fact. In the Patent 



* It is stated in the proceedings of the convention of iron workers recently held in 
Albany, New York, tliat some of the English establishments deliver bar iron on tide 
water at a cost ranging from $17 to $30 per ton, or less than one cent per pound ; 
Scotch ]Dig iron, they also say, can be delivered in New York, duties off, at a cost 
not exceeding $14 to $16 per ton. 



(247) 

Office report, made to the last session of Congress, (the last one pub- 
lished,) it is stated by the Commissioner, Mr. Burke, a Northern man, 
that the annual value of articles manufactured in the United States is 
five hundred and fifty millions of dollars. This statement does not 
include iron, salt, coal, sugar, wool, the products of fisheries, and other 
articles on which a duty is collected; adding these, swells the amount 
to nearly seven hundred millions. Our imports for that year were 
unusually large, on account of the famine abroad. Nevertheless, all 
the articles imported, on which a duty is collected, including the above 
omitted in the statement of manufactures, are in value only one hun- 
dred and eleven millions, one hundred and fifty-four thousand, three 
hundred and fifteen dollars. It thus appears that the amount manu- 
factured in the countr}^ is more than six times that imported. It is 
not pretended, however, that this comparison afibrds a proper measure 
of the amount of the burden which the country may sustain ; and that, 
while it pays to the government thirty-three millions, it pays two 
hundred to the manufacturers indirectly, thereby making the whole 
loss to consumers, in the first instance, two hundred and thirty-three 
millions. Some few articles are manufactured here as cheaply as they 
can be elsewhere; and a very large number, at the places where they 
are made, are cheaper to the consumer than would be the foreign article 
when transported there. It is also true, however, that in a great many 
cases the consumer loses even more than the whole duty, because he is 
not only obliged to pay it to the manufacturer or refund it to the 
importer, but also a profit or per cent, on this duty to each trader through 
whose hands the article passes before it reaches him. In other 
instances, the price is intermediate between what it would be without 
any duty, and that which it would amount to by the addition of the 
duty. Want of accurate knowledge of all the facts renders it impossi- 
ble to determine precisely the effect which our revenue system pro- 
duces; but that it is most powerful and controlling cannot be denied. 
The government actually raises more than thirty millions per year by 
these duties. The manufacturers, who certainly are interested in 
selling their productions at a high rather than a low rate, and who 
understand their true interests, attach the greatest importance to the 
tariff system, and attribute to its operation eit'ects even greater than I 
have stated them to be. 

There has been less complaint among consumers, because the cost of 
most manufactured articles has been diminishing from time to time. 
This fall of prices, however, is partly attributable to the great discove- 
ries made during our day in chemistry, mechanism, and the arts gen- 
erally, by which these articles are produced with much more facility. 
It is also attributable to the comparative repose of the world, which has 
directed capital and labor, formerly consumed in wars, to industrial 
pursuits. Hence, though there is a gradual reduction of prices in 
the United States, yet it is still more striking on the other side of the 
Atlantic. In Great Britain particularly, as well as in certain portions 
of the Continent, such is the accumulation of capital, and so great the 
number of laborers who are obliged to w^ork for a mere subsistence, 
that prices are at the lowest possible rate. We have a right to take 



(248) 

advantage of this state of things, just as the Europeans do of our 
cheap production of cotton. Instead of giving us a half dollar a 
pound, as they used to do, they, as well as the people of the Northern 
States, seem glad to get it for five cents per pound, in consequence of 
our over production of the article. We have, therefore, a natural 
right to purchase their productions at the lowest rate at which we can 
obtain them, to counterbalance the disadvantage we suffer from the 
accumulation of a different kind of capital and labor. To alleviate 
this burden, we of the South get back very little in the form of pro- 
tection. Why, then, have Southern men been willing to submit to a 
system so unequal in its operation! Because, as I have formerly had 
occasion to state, in the Convention which made the Federal Constitu- 
tion there was a bargain made between the North and the South, that, 
provided they would allow our slaves to be represented, to permit 
importation for a time, and to deliver up fugitives, the South would, 
on its part, agree that a 'majority o£ Congress might have power to 
pass navigation or tariff laws. As the gift of the power under the cir- 
cumstances necessarily implied that it was to be exercised, we felt 
bound in honor to acquiesce in the action of the majority. Because 
in the second place, protection to such extent as might give our 
infant manufactures a fair start, was calculated to advance the interest 
of the nation as a whole, though for the time it might bear hardly on 
us. And because, thirdl}^, we hoped that the Southern States would 
after a time get to manufacturing themselves, as their interest required 
them to do, and thus escape the burden. It was thus that Southern 
gentlemen, even after the North had partially failed to pay its share 
of the consideration, with great magnanimity continued to sustain the 
system. 

The manner of disbursement is also adverse to our interests. Of 
the forty odd millions which the government purposes to disburse this 
year, I do not believe that five millions will in any way be expended 
in all the slaveholding States. North Carolina, for example, is bur- 
dened to the extent of not less than four millions, and yet does not get 
back one hundred thousand dollars in any way from the government. 
The clear loss, in a pecuniary point of view, on account of the action 
of the government, may be set down at not less than three millions 
annually. The Southern States generally are in the same situation. 

What would be our condition if we separated from the North ? It 
is difficult to determine the precise amount of the exports of the slave- 
holding States, because it is not practicable to arrive at the exact 
value of that portion which is sold to the free States. But the amount 
of our leading staples being pretty well known — I mean cotton, rice, 
tobacco, sugar, &c. — we can arrive at the whole value of our exports 
pretty nearly. They cannot fall short of one hundred and thirty mil- 
lions of dollars, and this year, perhaps, considerably exceed that sum. 
This is nearly as much as the whole of the exports of the United 
States to foreign countries. It must be remembered, however, that 
though the free States furnish part of our exports, yet that which they 
do afford is scarcely so much as the portion of our own products which 
goes to them for consumption. If, therefore, we were separated, our 



( 249 ) 

whole exports to tlie North and to foreign countries, generally, would 
be equal to that sum. Of course we should import as much, and in 
fact do at this time consume as much. A duty of thirty per cent, on 
these imports (and most of the rates of the present tariff law are higher) 
would yield a revenue of nearly forty millions of dollars. As the prices 
of almost all manufactured articles are regulated by the production of 
the great workshops of Europe, where the accumulation of capital and 
labor keeps down production to the lowest possible rates, I have no 
doubt but that sum would be raised without any material increase of the 
prices which our citizens now pay. We might, therefore, expend as 
much as the government of the United States ever did in time of peace, 
up to the beginning of General Jackson's administration, and still 
have on hand twenty-five millions of dollars to devote to the 
making railroads, opening our harbors and rivers, and for other 
domestic purposes. Or, by levying only a twenty per cent, duty, 
which the Northern manufacturers found ruinous to them, as they 
said, under Mr. Clay's compromise bill, we should be able to raise 
some twenty-five millions of dollars. Half of this sum would be suf- 
ficient for the support of our army, navy and civil government. The 
residue might be devoted to the making of all such improvements as 
we are now in want of, and especially chequering our country over 
with railroads. Subjecting the goods of the North to a duty, with 
those from other foreign countries, would at once give a powerful 
stimulus to our own manufactures. We have already sufficient cap- 
ital for the purpose. But if needed, it would come in from abroad. 
English capitalists have filled Belgium with factories. Why did this 
occur? Simply because provisions were cheaper thereand taxes lower 
than in England. The same motives would bring them into the 
Southern country, since both the reasons assigned are much stronger 
in our case. It has already been proved that we can manufacture 
some kinds of goods more cheaply than the North. In New England, 
too, owing to her deficient agriculture, everything is directed to man- 
ufacturing, and the system is strained up to a point which is attended 
with great social disadvantages, so as to retard population. In the 
South it need not be so. The climate and soil are very favorable to 
agricultural pursuits. Our slaves might be chiefly occupied on the 
farms, while the poorer class of our population, and a portion of our 
females, could be advantageously employed in manufacturing. We 
should thus have that diversity in our pursuits which is mo<t condu- 
cive to the prosperity and happiness of a people. 

Our carrying trade would probably for a time be in the hands of 
the English and other foreigners. This, however, would not be to 
our disadvantage, since Northern shipowners now, by reason of the 
monopoly which the existing law gives them, charge as much for 
freight between New York and New Orleans as they do to Canton, on 
the opposite side of the globe. The whole amount of the freight on 
southern productions, received by the North has, on a minute calcu- 
lation, been .set down at forty millions, one hundred and eighty-six 
thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight dollars (40,186,728.) The 
whole value which the North derives from its Southern connection 
32 



( 250 ) 

has been estimated, by some persons most familiar with these sta- 
tistics, at more than eighty-eight millions of dollars. Whoever looks 
into the condition of the different States prior to the formation of the 
Union, and compares it with their situation at first, under low duties, 
up to the war and tariff of 1816, and its successors, highly protective as 
they have been, will find the facts fully sustaining the opinions I have 
expressed. Northern writers of elementary books, made for school 
children, of course represent things differently, and deceive the careless 
and ignorant. My opinions on these points have been settled for a 
long while past, though I have not heretofore been in a position where 
I thought I could exert any controlling influence, or effect any 
desirable object, by giving utterance to them. 

In throwing out these views, Mr. Chairman, I have not sought the 
utmost degree of precision, but I have no doubt but that all the facts will 
be found on examination not less favorable to my conclusions than 
I have stated them. My purpose now is simply to present to Northern 
gentlemen such general views as are likely now to be adopted by the 
South. Your course of aggression is already arraying against you all the 
highest minds of the South men of high intellect, and higher 
patriotism, whose utter indifference to all personal considerations will 
make them, in the language of my eloquent friend from Georgia, (Mr. 
Toombs) "devote all they have and all the}'' are to this cause." 

But gentlemen speak of the difficulty of making the boundary ; and 
the condition of the border States of Maryland and Kentucky are par- 
ticularly referred to. Undoubtedly each State would have the right to 
determine for itself to which section of the confederacy it would belong. 
If these two States were to unite with the North, then, as it would not 
be possible for them to change their condition immediately with 
respect to slavery, if they ever did, they would for many years, at least, 
form a barrier against the aggressions of the free States, until, in short, 
the South would have become too great and powerful to need such aid. 
I take it, however, that their interest would lead them to prefer an 
association with the South. With reference to fugitive slaves, Mary- 
land would not be materially worse off than I have shown her to be, 
if she were not in fact less molested. There would, however, be some 
great countervailing advantages. She is in advance of most of the 
Southern States in manufactures, and a duty on Northern imports 
would give her for the time better prices on such things as now come 
from the North. Baltimore would, perhaps, from its considerable size 
and its capital, become the New York of the South. New York itself 
must at once lose more than half its foreign trade. Charleston and 
New Orleans would expand rapidly. The like might occur to the cities 
of Virginia. Even the little towns on the eastern coast of my own 
State would more than recover the trade which they had prior to the 
war duties and tariff of 1816. The northern tier of counties in Ken- 
tucky would perhaps be obliged to remove their slaves to the South. 
But there would be to her advantages in the change, similar to those 
of Maryland. Kentucky supplies the South with live stock to a great 
extent; but she has to encounter the competition of Ohio and other 
Northwestern States. If the productions of these States were subjected 



(251) 

to a duty, she might for a time have a monopoly in the trade. I would 
do injustice to these two States if I supposed that they would be gov- 
erned solely or even mainly by calculations of interest. Maryland 
and Kentucky are filled with as courageous, as generous, and as noble- 
minded men and women as exist on earth ; and following their bold 
impulses, they would make common cause with their oppressed sisters 
of the South, and, if necessary take their places where the blows might 
fall thickest, in the front of the column, with the same high feelings 
that animated their ancestors on the battle-fields of the Revolution. 
Rather than that they should separate from us, I think it far more 
probable that some of the northwestern free States would find it to 
their advantage to go with the South. But we have been threatened 
that the North will take possession of the Lower Mississippi. The 
British tried that in 1815, but found Andrew Jackson and some of the 
Southwestern militiamen in the Vv^ay. In the thirty-five years that 
have since passed, those States have become populous and strong, and 
would doubtless be able to protect their waters from aggression. The 
Southern States having now a free population of six millions, and pro- 
ducing in succession such soldiers as Washington, Jackson, Scott, and 
Taylor, need have no serious fears of foreign aggression. 

I submit it, then, Mr. Chairman, calmly to Northern gentlemen, 
that they had better make up their minds to give us at once a fair set- 
tlement; not cheat us by a mere empty form, without reality, but give 
something substantial for the South. We might acquiesce in the 
Missouri compromise line. I should individually prefer, under all the 
circumstances, giving up the whole of California, provided we could 
have all on this side of it, up to about the parallel of 40°, not far from 
the Northern line of the State of Missouri, rather than its Southern — 
36° 30\ We would thus, by getting the v/hole of New" Mexico, and 
having the mountain chain and desert on the west, obtain a proper 
frontier. We might then acquire, at some future day, whether united 
or divided, possession of the country along the Gulf of Mexico, well 
suited to be occupied by our slave population. I mean, sir, that no 
restriction ought to be imposed by Congress on this territory, but that 
after it has been -left open to all classes for a proper period, the majority 
may then, when they make a State Constitution, determine for them- 
selves whether they will permit slavery or not. The South will 
acquiesce in any reasonable settlement. 

But when we ask for justice, and to be let alone, we are met by the 
senseless and insane cry of " Union, union !" Sir, I am disgusted with 
it. When it comes from Northern gentlemen who are attacking us, it 
falls on my ears as it would do if a band of robbers had surrounded a 
dwelling, and when the inmates attempted to resist, the assailants 
should raise the shout of " Peace — union — harmony !" If they will do 
us jtcstice, we do not need their lectures. As long as they refuse it, 
their declarations seem miserable, hypocritical cant. When these 
things come from Southern men, I have even less respect for them. 
Even the most cowardly men, when threatened with personal injury, 
do not usually announce in advance that they mean to submit to all 
the chastisement which an adversary may choose to inflict. And those 



(252) 

persons who, seeing the aggressive attitude of the North, and its 
numerical power, declare in advance that for their parts they intend to 
submit to whatever the majority may do, are taking the best course to 
aid our assailants, and need not wonder if the country regards them as 
enemies of the South. 

If Northern gentlemen will do us justice on this great question, we 
may consent to submit to lesser evils. We may acquiesce in a most 
oppressive revenue system. We may tolerate a most unequal distri- 
bution of the public expenditures. We may bear the loss of our fugi- 
tive slaves, incurred because the Legislators of the Northern States 
have nullified an essential provision of the Constitution, without which 
the Union could not have been formed, because mere pecuniary con- 
siderations are not controlling with us. We may even permit such 
portions of the Northern people as are destitute of proper self-respect, 
to send up here occasionally representatives whose sole business 
seems to be to irritate as much as possible Southern feeling, and pan- 
der to the prejudices of the worst part of the Northern community. 
We may allow that the Northern States shall keep up and foster in 
their bosoms abolition societies, whose main purpose is to scatter fire- 
brands throughout the South, to incite servile insurrections, and stim- 
ulate, by licentious pictures, our negroes to invade the persons of our 
white women. But if, in addition to all these wrongs and insults, you 
intend to degrade and utterly ruin the South, then we resist. We do 
not love you, people of the North, well enough to become your slaves. 
God has given us the power and the will to resist. Our fathers 
acquired our liberty by the sword, and with it, at every hazard, we 
will maintain it. But before resorting to that instrument, I hold that 
all constitutional means should be exhausted. It is, sir, a wise pro- 
vision of Providence that less force is required to resist an attack than 
to make it. The Constitution of the United States has been well 
framed on these principles. While, therefore, a majority is necessary 
to pass a measure, one-fifth of the members may demand the yeas and 
nays. In spite, therefore, of any change of rule which the majority 
can make, as long as this constitutional provision stands, a minority'- 
of one-fifth or more, if firm, and sustained by the people at home, can 
stop the wheels of the government. If it is ascertained that no proper 
settlement can be gotten of the Territorial question, it would be in the 
the power of the Soutliern members to defeat all the appropriation 
bills, and bring the government to a dead halt. Perhaps it might be 
well to give snch a cup to Northern gentlemen ; for I well remember 
that when the civil and diplomatic appropriation bill was under consid- 
eration, with the amendment from the Senate known as Walker's, which 
would have settled the question of slavery in the Territories, a number of 
Northern gentlemen resolved to defeat that bill and all other business 
by constantly calling for the yeas and nays, if they did not succeed in 
striking out that amendment. I recollect perfectly, that while I was 
pressing a Pennsylvania member to vote against striking out that 
amendment, which was the pending motion, a member of high stand- 
ing from Massachusetts said to me, " You need not give yourself any 
trouble about this matter; if we do not succeed in changing it, we shall 



(253) 

prevent its adoption by having the yeas and nays on motions to 
adjourn, and calls of the House, till the end of the session." From 
similar declarations made to me by a number of Northern gentlemen, 
as I went through the House, I had no doubt, but that, as he said, enough 
had agreed to have enabled them to effect their purpose, if the motion 
to change the character of the amendment had failed. It is not long 
since, too, that another citizen of Massachusetts (Mr. John Davis) 
defeated the two million bill then pending in the Senate, by speak- 
ing till the end of the session. As Northern gentlemen have there- 
fore been accustomed to this mode of resistance to such measures as 
they do not like, I take it, that they would hardly complain of this 
kind of retaliation. 

I tell gentlemen that, if we cannot in advance get a fair settlement of 
this question, I should be pleased to sec the civil and diplomatic bill, the 
army and navy bill, and all other appropriations, f>iil. We should there- 
by make every officer and every expectant of public money directly in- 
terested in having justice done to the South. It would be far better to 
have this temporary inconvenience for a year or two, than that we should 
see a bloody revolution, or something worse. I hold it to be the duty of 
every Southern representative to stay here and prevent, till the close of 
our official term, the passage of any measures that might tend to force 
our people to unjust su.binission. In the meantime, the Suuthern States 
could, in convention, take such steps as might be necessary to assert 
their right to a share in the public territory. If this interregnum were 
to continue long, it might drive both sections to make provisional gov- 
ernments, to become permanent ones in the end. 

But it is advised, in certain ]iortions of the Northern press, that the 
members from that section ought to expel such as interrupt their pro- 
ceedings. Let them try the experiment. I tell gentlemen, that this is 
our slaveholding territory. We do not intend to leave it. If they think 
they can remove us, it is a proper case for trial. In the present temper 
of the public mind, it is probable that a collision of the kind here 
might electrify the country, as did the little skirmish at Lexington the 
colonies in their then excited state. Such a struggle, whoever might 
prove the victors in it, would not leave here a quorum to do business. 
Gentlemen may call t\i\s, treason — high treason — the highest treason ever 
known. But their words are idle. We shall defeat their movement 
against us. But even if I thought otherwise, I would still resist. Sooner 
than submit to what they propose, I would rather see the South, like 
Poland, under the iron heel of the conqueror. I would rather that she 
should find the fate of Hungary. 

It was but the other day, and under our own eyes, that the gallant 
Hungarians asserted their independence. Though in the midst of, and 
struggling against those two immense empires, that could bring more 
than a million of armed men into the field, the}^ were successsful at first 
in beating down the power of Austria. It was not until some of her 
sons became traitors that Hungry was finally overpowed, borne down, 
and pressed to death by the long columns and gigantic strength of Bus- 
sia. If necessary, let such be our fate. 

"Better be 
Where the extinguished Spartans still are free, 
In their proud charnel of Thermopylae." 



(254) 

Rather let the future traveller, as he passes over a blackened and 
desert waste, at least exclaim, " Here lived and died as noble a race as 
the sun ever shone upon." If we were to wait until your measures were 
consummated and your coil, like that of a great serpent, was completely 
around us, then we might be crushed. Seeing the danger, we have the 
wisdom and the courage to meet the attack now, while we have the 
'power to resist. We must prove victors in this struggle. If we repel 
the wave of aggression now, we shall have peace. The Abolitionists 
defeated before the country on the main issue, will not have power to 
molest us. 

I have thus, sir, frankly spoken my opinions on this great question, 
with no purpose to menace, but only to warn. Gentlemen of the North 
ought themselves to see that, while submission to what they propose 
would be ruinous to us, it would not in the end be beneficial to their 
section. Seeing, then, the issue in all its bearings, it is for them to 
decide. They hold in their hands the destiny of the existing govern- 
ment. Should circumstances divide us, I wish that you may prosper. 
From all my knowledge of the elements of your society, I have doubts. 
That we shall, under the favor of Providence, in all events, take care of 
ourselves, I have no fears. In conclusion, 1 have to say, do us justice 
and we continue to stand with you ; attempt to trample on us, and we 
separate. 

NOTE. 

This speech being published in the two Washington dailies, the New York 
Herald and other papers, and coming as it did from one previously regarded 
as a zealous Whig, and a decided Union man, was read with great astonish- 
ment. Papers favorable to the Nortliern view denounced it in strong lan- 
guage, and as treasonable, while in the South there was a general surprise on 
account of its views, and a desire to ascertain whether its representations 
were to be verified by the develo2)raents of the session. 

On previous occasions, dilatory motions, with calls of the ayes and noes, 
liad been resorted to for temporary purposes, or to prevent action for a day 
on some question. My suggestion to use these means with a deliberate 
purpose to defeat action on the slavery issues, which might be unjust, and 
if extreme views were persisted in by the Nortliern members, to employ 
dilatory proceedings to the extent even of defeating the appropriation bills, 
was regarded with incredulity at first. After a few weeks trial, however, it 
was seen that these }neans might prove most formidable for defense. The 
papers at that time spoke of it as " the Clingman 'process,^'' and it became evi- 
dent that the admission, for example, of California as a separate proposition, or 
the passage of other measures proposed, might be indefinitely resisted. Mr. 
Clay, wdio with Mr. Webster and others had insisted on the admission of 
California by itself, saw that a different policy might become necessary. On 
meeting me one day in the passage near the Senate, he said: "Clingman, 
how did you get that idea of calling the ayes and noes to defeat measures?" 
I replied, " I will teU you exactly, Mr, Clay, Avhen it occurred to me. About 
a week before the meeting of Congress, being here in the city, after I went 
to bed my anxiety as to the condition of the country made me so restless, tiiat 
I could not sleep, and sometime between midnight and day the thought, sud- 
denly flashed into my mind like electricity, and it excited me so much that I 
sprang out of bed and walked up and down my room for at least half an hour 
in the dark and cold before I could lie down again." " Well," said he, with 



( 255 ) 

an indignant look, " it is just such an idea as I suppose a man would get 
between midnight and day." 

Ml'. Webster, in a conversation I had with him a few days before his seventh 
of March speech, took the matter even more seriously, so that for nearly two 
years we barely spoke when we met, but at the end of that time, by his own 
act, cordial relations were restored. 

Surprise is often expressed that, while Mr. Webster's speeches as read 
seem to be superior to Mr. Clay's, yet Mr. Clay's influence and popularity 
were vastly greater. In order that young men especially, may understand 
this, it will perliaps not be out of place for me to refer to certain of Mr. Clay's 
peculiarities. I may in so doing be subjected to the criticism of certain per- 
sons. Though Mr. Clay was impulsive at times and occasionably irascible, 
and in fact, as Mr. Mangum, his most intimate and devoted friend, said, 
"On some occasions he is the worst mannered man in America;" yet he never 
bore malice. His patriotism or public spirit would not only induce him, when 
necessary, to control mere personal antipathies, and he was disposed to like 
every one whom he regarded as sincere and honest. 

Again, being very ambitious of success in what he desired to accomplish, 
he with consummate tact, not only made friends, but sought to retain them. 
Therefore, both from public and also from personal motives, he used his great 
powers to secure and retain as large a body of followers as possible. He 
would not allow trivial circumstances to induce him to give up his ascendency 
over those whom he liked, or thought he could make useful, provided he 
regarded them as true men. 

In illustration of these characteristics of his, I will refer to several incidents, 
trivial in themselves, but which serve to illustrate the character and qualities 
of one, Avho was pronounced by Mr. Adams "the greatest parliamentary man 
in the world," on the occasion when he described the interview of the Demo- 
cratic Senators with President Tyler. In fact, he probably made more personal 
friends than any man who ever lived. 

On my calling to see Mr. Clay on his arrival at the beginning of the session, 
immediately after shaking hands with me he said, "AVhat business have you 
writing letters to Foote ?" This was said not Ijecause he entertained any 
personal objections to Senator Foote, but merely because he regarded him as 
an extreme Democrat, leaning towards disunion. It was singular and some- 
what amusing to find that in the course of a few months. Mi-. Clay and Mr. 
Foote became very intimate, and Avorked most harmoniously together to 
carry through the so-called compromise measures of that session. 

In December, soon after the day on which Mr. Toombs made his " discord 
speech," President Taylor's first formal dinner party Avas given. It happened 
that Mr. Clay and I were both among the guests invited, and on our meeting 
in the parlor he said, " Clingman, Avhat did you mean by clapping Toombs' 
speech to-day?" The speech had created great excitement and been 
applauded by many, and 1 had then obseiwed that Mr. Clay was in the hall 
of the House. I replied, Avith affected levity, that the speech Avas so splendid 
that I did not see how any one could help applauding it. After dinner, 
while we Avere putting on OA^ercoats in the dressing room, he looked at me 
earnestly, and with an expression in which regret seemed to predominate OA^er 
displeasure, he said: "Clingman, I don't like your clapping Toombs." 

Though subsequently during the session he knew I was actively opposing 
the measures he Avas pressing, instead of shoAving anger or becoming repel- 
lant in his manner, if I omitted for many days at a time to A'isit him, on a 
casual meeting he would say, " Why have you not been to see me ? I expect 
you have been in mischief; come and report to me." On a certain evening 



(256) 

when, after he had been urgent in speaking of liis measures, on my expressing 
strongly my objections, he seemed to become violently angry, and with his 
right hand seized me by the back of the neck with a grasp of some violence 
and said, " We shall have to hai]g such men as you are." On ray turning 
towards him with some effort and saying " You have been called a dictator, 
but you now have a stubborn subject," his manner instantly changed; letting 
my neck go, he said: " Well, we won't quarrel about it, let us go in to tea," 
and running his arm inside of mine, we walked into the supper room. 

This incident will remind some persons of an occurrence which has hereto- 
fore been made public, that happened between him and General Scott. At 
the Harrisburg Convention, by the efforts of General Scott's friends in part 
at least, Mr. Clay liad been superseded and Harrison nominated. Mr. Cla}'" 
regarded General Scott as to some extent responsible for this. On entering 
a room one evening where General Scott and some parties were seated at a 
table playing whist, Mr. Clay grasped Scott's shoulder with such violence 
that the General exclaimed, "Mr. Clay you are hurting my wounded shoulder." 
"Ah," said Mr. Clay, " I always believed, Scott, that there was a bad place 
in you." Scott instantly sprang up, but the interference of friends present, 
at once reconciled them. 

Mr. Clay was so fine an actor when he chose to be one, that it was some- 
times not easy to decide whether he was in earnest, or merely playing for 
amusement. The following story was told me by one who said he was 
present on the occasion. After the first bank bill had been passed, and while 
there was suspense and anxiety felt as to whether President Tyler would sign 
it or not, there was a social gathering of many prominent Whigs, to which 
the President had been invited. He did not arrive until the guests generally 
had assembled. On seeing him enter, Mr, Clay met him in the middle of the 
room, and as he confronted him, said in a tone loud enough to be heard by 
all present: "Mr. President, show us your hand; what are you for?" Mr. 
Tyler seemed disconcerted and embarrassed by such a sudden assault, and 
appeared at a loss as to his reply. Mr. Clay after enjoying his confusion for 
a few moments, suddenly turned to tlie left, and waving his hand towards 
the sideboard said, " Will you take wine or brandy ?" 

No one could be more graceful and urbane in manner than Mr. Clay usually 
was, nor was any one more ready to correct a wrong, if such had occurred. 
His general manner was that of a man pei-fectly brave who had nothing to 
conceal. His knowledge of character was not only remaikable, but he had a 
most wonderful intuitive perception of the tlieu state of mind of the person 
he met, and hence he at once knew how to address him so as to make the 
most agreeable impression. 

The difference between him and Mr. Webster in these i-espects may be illus- 
trated by some occurrences between the latter and myself. Not long before 
Mr. Webster's speech on the soveiith of March, 1850, was delivered, at the 
suggestion of Mr. Mangum and s<jme other friends, I sought an interview 
with Mr. Webster. He invited me into one of the rooms adjoining the Senate 
Chamber. I commenced the conversation by saying that he was expected to 
speak on the subject, &c. He interrupted me by saying in rather a stern 
manner, " If I speak it will not be to add to the excitement in the country." 
This was evidently intended as a rebuke to me for the speech recently made. 
When I went on to speak of the importance of dividing the new territory so 
as to give permanent peace, and said the amendment to the fugitive law 
would be no adequate equivalent, and that, in fact, it Avould be fruitless of 
benefit, and would merely strengthen the abolitionists, he became ruffled in 
his temper. Seeing that I was making no favorable impression on him, I 



1257) 

said that unless some general settlement could be effected the separate meas- 
ures would not be allowed to pass. He became more angry and replied, 
" Sir, social relations cannot be ke[it with gentlemen who maintain such 
extreme views." I immediately rose, and as 1 turned my back on him to go 
out, said: "I care nothing about tliat; these views will be maintained and 
they will be successful." Instead of being made angry by this remark I was 
only amused, knowing Washington society as I did. Mr. Webster himself 
doubtless soon lost his angry feelings, for during the session he took the 
position which I had desired him to occupy on the pending issues, but_ his 
manner when we met casually seemed constrained or sullen. He possibly 
might have entertained the idea tliat I would cherish angry feelings towards 
him. 

When, in the winter of 1851 and 185 2, Kossuth was in Washhigton, it was 
proposed to give him a public dinner, and I had been somewhat prominent in 
the movement. When the day on which the dinner was to take place arrived 
on my return to my lodgings I found a card of Mr. Webster, then Secretary 
of State, had been left for me. In the evening, before the time for the 
dinner ha 1 ai-rived, Mr. Charies Lamnan, Mr. Webster's Secretary, and one of 
my personal friends, called to see me and said tliat he understood that there 
had been some misunderstanding between Mr. Webster and myself, of the 
causes of which he knew nothing, and that he merely wished to say that Mr. 
Webster desired that it should be forgotten, and that he would like to meet 
me that evening. When Mr. Webster arrived at the National Hotel, where 
the dinner was to be given, I met him in the parlors. After the usual salu- 
tation he said, "Clingman, why can you not let old things he, old things, and 
come and see us as you used to do. Mrs. Webster notices that you do not 
call to see us as you formerly did." I replied that I had been very busy, 
&c., but that I would call soon. 

On the next day I merely left my card, as he had done. Some weeks later 
Mr. Crittenden, the x\ttorney General, invited his friends to a supper given 
at one of the hotels. In the course of the evening Mr. Webster and I getting 
together, he said: "Why is it tluit you do not come and see us as you used 
to do." 1 answered that I had been rather unwell and very much occupied, 
&c. He conversed a good deal that evening about wine and the grape cul- 
ture among other things. Perhaps a month or two after this I had occasion 
to call at the State Department to see Mr. Lanman. Immediately after I 
entered the room he asked me to excuse him for a moment, and Avalked into 
the adjoining room where Mr. Webster was. Soon after Mr. Webster 
came in, and invited me to take a seat opposite to him, at a small table, and 
said, "There have been some misunderstandings between us in the past, but 
it is time they should be forgotten. Mrs. Webster will have some ladies to 
visit her soon whom you know and like, and you must come and see us." In 
the course of two or three weeks I received an invitation to dinner, which, of 
course, was accepted. After the dinner was over at which he remained a 
good while, considering that his health was feeble, on his retiring it was 
remarked that he had not for a long while conversed as much at one time as 
he did on that occasion. 

The Whig Convention was approaching and one of my published letters 
had commended Mr. Webster's great effoits for the country, and he also 
knew that I had at ]3altimore endeavored to induce the Southern delegations 
to give him a solid vote. 

In the latter part of August I had occasion to see him on some business. 
Entering the ante-room occupied by Mr. Lanman, I gave my card for Mr. 
Webster to the mulatto man Avho acted as messenger. He came back imme- 

33 



( 258 ) 

dlately, and said, " Mv, Webster is busy, but will see you in a few moments." 
Within a minute afterwards Mr. Webster came himself to the door to speak 
to Mr. Lanman. He looked surprised at seeing me, and said, "Are you here, 
why did you not let ns know it ?" 1 answered that I had sent in my card, 
but that i had been told that he was busy at the time. He replied, "they 
never let rae know it, or I would not have let you wait a moment. Now,'^ 
said he, after we shook hands, " I am going uj) to Massachusetts, to Marsh^ 
field, and if you will come up to Boston I will send two coaches for you." 
I answered, "One will be enough." "No," said he quickly, "I will send 
two, and if you delay your coming long, I may be up in New Hampshire, and 
if you come up there Mrs, V/ebster has a bed in a corner for you. When 
you get to Boston you can find out where I am. You know my son Fletcher? 
he has a law office in town and he can tell you where I am. Any merchant 
in Boston can tell you." He paused an instant and repeated, "Fletcher 
will tell you where I am, and any merchant can tell you." Though a little 
thinner than usual and somewhat paler, I thought I had never seen him look 
more intellectual and grand than he did then. In six weeks I heard of his 
death. 

Those who knew Mr. Webster well will recognize some of his peculiarities 
in this narrative, and it may give strangers to him a better idea of the differ- 
ences of manner between him and Mr. Clay. Though I was much more 
frequently with Mr. Clay, yet his features are not so welf marked in my mem- 
ory as are those of Mr. Webster. In fact, Mr. Webster's countenance and 
figure comes up more frequently and vividly before me than those of any 
one else. 

These incidents, in themselves iinimportant, nevertheless tend to show 
Avhy Mr, Webster's personal popularity and hifluence were so much less than 
Mr. Clay's. In such a case as this Mr. Clay would not have thought for a 
moment of inanifesting his dislike in such a mode, and as soon us his feelings 
changed he would at once have promptly terminated the misunderstanding. 
The course taken by Mr. Webster might have so offended many persons as 
to render them enemies and cause them to endeavor to throw obstacles in 
his way. 

jMr. Webster never seemed better satisfied for the moment than when 
seated at the head of his own table with a large salmon, the present 
of some friend from Maine, before him, with a dozen friends around, and an 
abundance of pleasant viands and good wines. He was reported to have 
said good hunioredly, "I do not know why you Southerners should not like 
rae, for I am as fond of good eating and drinking as you are, and they say 
that I am rather careless about my debts." 

Two of his most remarkable traits ought, perhaps, to be I'cf erred to. Such 
was his mental constitution that he could not argue earnestly against his 
convictions of right. He was the very opposite of tiiose men, who are said to 
be capable of arguing as well on the wrong, as on the right side of a question. 
Mr. Webster never dealt in sophistry, and Jhis speeches were but the state- 
ments of his convictions. So free was he from prejudice and so decided was 
his love of truth, and so strong was his sense of justice, that if in the examina- 
tion of a question he saw that the merits were not with him, he ceased to 
struggle against his convictions. 

But, on the other hand, his indecision at times, or hesitation as to the line 
of action he would take, greatly diminished his influence. On one occasion 
when he and Mr. Mangum were co-operating as to a certain policy, the latter 
being worried with some hesitation on the part of Mr. Webster, said: "Mr. 



( 259 ) 

Webster can make a speecli to five hundred men and convince four hundred 
and ninety of them that he is right, and then he will be in doubt himself.'* 

When a man does not seem to have confidence in himself, he cannot fasten 
others strongly to him. Had Mr. Webster possessed decision, firmness, per- 
severence, combativeness, that vivida vis for whicli Clay, Jackson, Calhoun 
and Benton were so remarkable, he would have drawn to himself a much 
larger following, and exerted a much more powerful influence over the desti- 
nies of the country. 

Of Mr. Mangum, having frequeutl}^ mentioned him, it may not be out of 
place that I should say that next to Mr. Clay, he probably possessed at one 
period, more personal influence than any other indi^'idual then in Congress. 
This was singular, too, that though Messrs. Clay, Webster, Calhoun and 
Benton had differences among themselves, and some of them even were very 
unfriendly with each other, yet Mr. Mangum always was the friend of each 
one of them. His fine presence, too, good manners, great conversational 
powers, and high social qualities rendered him generally popular. With 
these gifts were joined in him, a most excellent judgment and extensive 
knowledge of all political matters. 

To indicate the progress of the contest a letter is presented which was 
published in the Hejmblic, March 22d, 1850. After referring to some per- 
sonal attack, I went on to state in the words which follow: 

House of Representatives, March 22, 1850. 
To THE Editors of the Republic : 

"You have heretofore, while condemning ultra politicians, thought 
proper, in several of your editorials, to include me by name in that 
class. 

But who are to be regarded as ultra politicians with reference to the 
great issue pending? The most ultra on the Southern side of the 
question that I know of, claim that slavery shall go into all the terri- 
tories of the United States which are common property, until it shall 
be excluded by State Constitutions. 

An ultra Northern man is he who claims that slavery shall be 
excluded from all the territory. If one of these views be more ultra 
than the other it must be the Northern one, because, even if the 
Southern view were adopted in practice, Northern men might occupy 
any part of the territory without being deprived of any legal advan- 
tage which they possess in their own States, and would have the further 
privilege, if they chose to exercise it, of holding slaves. If, however, 
slaver}' should be excluded, the Southerner would find himself deprived 
of certain advantages which ]:ie would enjoy at home. 

Those men who, standing between these two opposite extremes, are 
willing that there should be an equitable division of the territory, 
may well claim to be the moderate men. In this class will fall, as far 
as I know, all the Southern members of Congress, as well as the entire 
mass of the Southern people. Whatever may be their views as to the 
powers of this government over the territory, they are willing, in fact, 
that there shall be a fair division. 

The real question at issue, therefore, is not whether the South shall 
have all the territory^ or even more than the North, but whether it 



(260) 

shall be permitted to possess any part of it. For example, if the Mis- 
souri line of 36° 30^ were extended to the Pacific, then all of the com- 
mon property, viz: the territory not included within any of the States, 
only one- sixth part lies south of that line; yet when, on behalf of tho 
South, we insist that this comparatively small part shall be left open 
to us, our claim is denounced as a monstrous pretension, as insuffer- 
able Southern arrogance. 

With just as much fairness might the South be excluded from any 
share of the public money and other public property. Of the sum 
annually paid out of the public Treasury, a small part comparatively 
is expended in the slaveholding States. This portion of the disburse- 
ment the North might insist on stopping with as good a grace as they 
can support their present claim. To prove that if that sum were also 
expended in the free States it would be productive of greater good, 
they miglit use just the same arguments that they now resort to. 
While the principle would be the same, too, in each case, it is clear that 
the ultimate mischief to the South in the future will be much greater 
from the exclusion from all the territor}^ than could result from 
depriving us of any share in the public money. 

If these new principles, which seem to have been adopted by most 
of the Northern politicians, are to prevail; if this government is to 
acquire territory by conquest or by purchase, and the Soutliern States 
are to be required to furnish their full proportion of men and money, 
and then the fruits of victory are to be appropriated exclusively by the 
North, it is idle to suppose that the South vrill go into any such part- 
nership. 

The Southern people have been free too long to cor sent thus to 
become the vassals of the North. As their object is to obtain a recog- 
nition of their right to participate fairly in the benefits of the national 
territory, their opposition is not limited to a particular mode of exclu- 
sion, as the Wilmot proviso. It extends to all such action on the part 
of the Federal government as places it always against them and their 
institutions. If, for example, when territory is acquired in which 
slavery legally exists, as was the case with the Louisiana territory, then 
the government is directly to interfere, and by an act of Congress to 
abolish slavery, as it did in more than three-fourths of that territory; 
and when, on the other hand, an acquisition of a different character is 
made, it is intentionally so to manage as to exclude slaveholders from 
all parts of it ; it is obvious that the character of our political system 
would be essentially changed ; so that the government, instead of 
being that of the whole Union, would have been converted into a mere 
machine for the advancement of the Northern section. 

By one mode of proceeding, for example, we are asked to admit Cal- 
ifornia as a State forthwith. But New Mexico and Deseret are in just 
as much want of legislative aid, and their inhabitants are just as urgent 
in their demands for our action in their cases. Inasmuch, therefore, 
as the inhabitants of all these Territories are in the same situation, 
and have all presented us forms of government, why discriminate 
between them? Why grant the recjuest of one set and refuse it to the 
others? Is it because California has made a Constitution excluding 



(261) 

slavery, while the other two Territories have not imposed any such 
restriction in their forms of government? Is it for this reason, I say, 
that we are to be required to admit her at once? If the majority from 
the North, instead of disposing of all these Territories at this time, 
they being equally entitled to our consideration, insist on pushing- 
through California alone, is not the conclusion irrisistible that it is 
their object merely to strengthen their hands, thus to enable them 
hereafter to secure the other portions of the Mexican territory by one 
mode or another? 

Are Southern men to be required to stultify themselves so far before 
the country as to affect to be blind to this state of things ? Could we 
settle the whole territorial question on equitable terms, we might be 
justified in waiving the strong objections to the manner in which this 
state of things was produced in California. The Northern members 
have not only, by decisive majorities, from time to time repeatedly 
during the last three years, passed the Wilmot proviso through the 
House of Representatives, but even at the last session, when. Mr. Pres- 
ton's bill to allow the people of that country to form a Constitution 
was under consideration, they appended that proviso to it, and thus 
obliged its friends to abandon it. The people of the country there, 
being thus persuaded that their only chance to get into the Union was 
by the exclusion of slavery, very naturally incorporated the proviso into 
their Constitution. 

The course which you have to some extent pursued, however 
patriotic may be your motives, and more especially that of the National 
Intelligencet', seems to me calculated only to produce mischief. I 
refer to the attempt to underrate the condition of feeling at the South 
by extracts carefully culled from Southern papers, letters, &c. No 
impression is thereby made on the South. The subject being one 
which everybody there fully understands, opinions cannot be shaken 
in relation to it. Those persons who reason l^now that it is wrong that 
the South should not be permitted, with her institutions, to occupy 
any part of the common territory; such as are not accustomed to 
reason feel that the exclusion is a gross outrage on their rights. 
When any man, how high soever may be his position, declaims against 
the extension of slavery into any part of the territory, his w^ords pro- 
duce no more effect on the settled judgment of the South, than the 
dashing of the waves against the base of a mountain of solid granite. 
The only effect of these publications is to deceive the North. What pos- 
sible good can result from keeping the people of that section in 
profound ignorance of the condition of things in the South? Is it 
wise thus to mislead the people there? Why not let them know that 
their movements may bring them into danger? Is it regarded as a 
wise stroke of policy, in a militaiy commander, to conceal from his 
his own troops the danger, until he can bring them up suddenly upon 
a masked battery? If the Union be in peril, nothing seems to me 
better calculated to increase the danger than such a course as this. 

Even if these quotations should be fairly made from the particular 
papers selected, it must be remembered that they constitute a small 
portion of those published in the Southern States. It may be re- 



( 262 ) 

marked, too, that a number of these papers are published by Northern 
men, some of whom retain their original sectional feelings, and are 
adroitl}' endeavoring Lo advance the anti-slavery views of the North, 
Other journals, partly from a party feeling of opposition to movements 
which found in the first instance more favor in the Democratic papers, 
and partly out of deference to the tone of the central press in this city, 
supposed to be in accordance with the views of the administration, 
iiave echoed back what they supposed would be acceptable here. As, 
however, it has become manifest that they were unintentionally aiding 
the anti-slavery movement of the North, they have gradually been 
taking a better view of things; and I have no doubt but that, ulti- 
mately, all such of them as are governed by patriotic considerations 
will assume the proper position. The North is also misled by the fact 
that certain Southern men seem willing to sacrifice the general 
national interests of the Union, by abandoning the rights of their own 
section and adopting the narrow sectional claims of the North. 
Whether these persons are governed by misguided patriotism, or are 
merely seeking Northern support for their personal advancement, it 
cannot be expected that they should be sustained by those wliose rights 
they are willing to surrender. If they have not already lost their 
influence, they will inevitably do so when their position is understood 
and the feeling has become intense. The effect of these things, how- 
ever, can be productive of nothing but mischief, by misleading the 
North. Had the real state of feeling in the old thirteen colonies been 
understood in England six months before the declaration of indepen- 
dence, our revolution would never have occurred ; but the British Par- 
liament and people were cheated and deceived by the ministers and 
their organs, who declared, from time to time, that the complaint 
on this side of the Atlantic came only from a few ambitious and 
factious men, who were making a noise and exciting sedition to give 
themselves consequence; and that the great body of the inhabitants 
of the colonies were loyal, contented and quiet, and so attached to the 
general government and the union with Great Britain, that they would 
submit to whatever laws the Parliament might pass. With this 
example so familiar to American minds, is it not strange that similar 
delusion should now prevail? 

But I will now advert to another point, viz : the means proposed to 
resist the improper action of the Northern majority. I have expressed 
the opinion that under our obligations to support the Constitution of 
the United States, all means consistent with its provisions should be 
exhausted before there should be a recommendation to appeal to our 
rights above it. And I have hence advised that, under all the circum- 
stances, if an equitable adjustment cannot be obtained of the the terri- 
torial question, then we ought to refuse to pass any appropriation bills 
for the support of the government. The idea of refusing supplies is 
not of American origin. It has been claimed in England as the 
undoubted right of the Parliament to refuse, at its own discretion, 
supplies to the executive. This right, too, has in practice from time 
to time been exercised to protect the rights and liberties of the people 



(263) 

of Englaiid, and has even been the means of extorting additional priv- 
ileges from the British monarchs. 

Will it be pretended that the representatives of American freemen 
ought to do less to protect the essential rights, and liberties even, of 
the people whom they represent? In England, however, nothing less 
than a majority of the representatives can do this; but under our 
Constitution the minority may effect the same object. Nobody will, I 
apprehend, affirm that the same act, ^;er se^ which would be proper 
when done by the majority, would be wrong if effected by the min- 
ority, acting in the manner provided by the Constitution itself. The 
act of the majority is only effective because the Constitution so 
declares; but this same Constitution provides also that certain acts, 
when done by the minority, shall be effective. This difference between 
our Constitution and that of Great Britain operates in behalf of lib- 
ert}.-, and to protect the rights of the minority. It is in some respects 
like the Presidential veto, which everybody admits ought in certain 
cases to be exercised, though it does have the effect of defeating the 
action of the majority. The Constitution of tlie United States, under 
which alone Congress acts, ])rovides that one-fifth of the members 
present may demand that the ayes and noes shall be taken on any 
question which may be submitted by the Speaker. 

It is also provided that eacli House may adopt its own rules of 
order. Such rules have been ado}»ted already by the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and are until modified or changed by the House itself, as 
much binding on the Speaker and every member as any constitutional 
provision whatever. In accordance with these rules, certain motions 
may be made, and the ayes and noes taken from time to time. 
Under the Constitution and these rules, one-fifth of those mem- 
bers present have undoubtedly the power to prevent the passage 
of laws, and to prevent also the adoption of any motions for a change 
of the old rules of the House. Unquestionably this is a power in the 
hands of the minority which might be abused ; so, however, might 
any other power granted by the Constitution, whether given to the 
majority, the minority, or to a single individual, as the President, 
Judge, or other officer. If the minority, for mere factious or 
slight purposes, were thus to impede legislation, this would, undoubt- 
edly, be a great abuse; but if that minority were, on the other hand, 
to resort to this system only temporarily, and as a matter of defence 
against a well-settled and gross system of injustice and tj^ranny on the 
part of the majority, then their conduct would not only be no abuse of 
its powers, but would, in fact, be a most praiseworthy and patriotic 
action for the protection of the essential rights of their constituents. 
No citizen has a right to strike another person; but if one is assailed 
and beaten, then he is justified in striking the assailant until he com- 
pels him to desist from his attack. 

Since this mode of resistance was suggested, it seems to have been 
received with much favor by Southern men. From many evidences 
within my reach, I select the following passage from a letter to me, 
which seems to present fairly the view taken in the South, as far as I 
am able to understand it. The writer is not only one whose opinion 



(264) 

will have as much weight as that of any one in North Carolina, from 
his standing and talents, but is entitled to the more consideration from 
the fact that, during a service of many years in Congress, he was not 
less distinguished for his moderation and conservative views than for 
the firmness and ability with which he maintained them. As tlie 
letter from which I make the extract was a private one, I do not give 
the name of the writer, much as I might, by so doing, strengthen the 
judicious statement of the case made by him.* He says : 

" I approve of your position to resist the passage of the appropria- 
tion bills until the slavery question is finally settled. This is a much 
better and more effectual plan than for Southern members to leave 
their seats, which I have seen proposed in some quarters. Should the 
Southern members merely leave their seats and return home, it will 
produce no result ; the North will pocket the public money and laugh 
at them. The matter can be settled nowhere but upon the floor of 
Congress, except by a dissolution of the Union, which nobody desires. 
If fifty of our Southern members would lay aside all other party ties 
and act firmly and openly together, they can force the North to do 
what is right, and what she ought to do without hesitation. Resist all 
bills for the support of government until this subject is finally and 
satisfactorily settled, particularly the annual appropriation, the army 
and navy bills. Let it be distinctly understood that you will oppose 
these measures by every parliamentary tactic in your power, and that 
you cannot be bouglit off, forced off, nor coaxed off, until justice is done 
the South; and, in my judgment, success is inevitable. x4.t all events, 
if I were there I would try the experiment until March 4, 1851. 

"The South has no direct interest in the passage of these bills, and 
if the object of refusing them is understood, I have no doubt it will 
be cordially approved. Should Congress adjourn without passing 
these bills, there will very soon be organized a powerful party in the 
North to put down Free-soilism and Abolitionism both. I do not 
think we should be plagued with either again for some time. In a 
movement of this kind every thing depends on its being carried out 
by firm, honest and true men, and I hope enough such may be found 
in Congress to undertake it, in spite of all the clamor it will raise in 
the North and among those who live by the government. It is a 
harsh measure, but in my opinion it is the only one left to save the 
Union and protect the South. Desperate diseases require desperate 
remedies." 

Should this means of resistance be adopted by the Southern mem- 
bers, there would be, I have no doubt, excitement at first and anger in 
the North. To allay it, however, if they are consistent and sincere in 
their expressions of devotion to the Constitution and laws, it would 
only be necessar}' for us to remind them of their own doctrine. If we 
complain of the threatened action of the majority, they advise us to 
refer the matter to the Supreme Court of the United States, which, 
they say, is the great constitutional arbiter whose decisions all good 



*Hou, Wm. B. Shepard, 



(265) 

citizens who love law and order must submit to. If they complained 
of this action of the minority, we, of course should recommend them 
to apply for redress to the Supreme Court. Should that august tribu- 
nal decide, for example, that one-fifth of the members present had not 
the right to demand the ayes and noes, then it would doubtless furnish 
to the complainants such remedial process as the Constitution of the 
United States and the laws provide in such cases. Should Northern 
gentlemen be so inconsistent as to decline to await the effect of this 
slow process, then they would probably attempt to change the existing 
rules of the House. But as these rules have been tried and approved 
by the American Congress for many years, they are as much rever- 
enced in certain quarters as were the laws of the Medes and Persians 
in their day. In other words, Southern' men, seeing how our country 
has prospered under these rules, may not choose to have them changed 
in any respect, and may resort to the same means to prevent a change 
as those above indicated. Should the majority in that contingency, 
as it has been threatened they will do, attempt to substitute their own 
rules, arbitrarily adopted, and to displace the existing Speaker because 
of his fidelity to the Constitution, then their conduct, being unlawful, 
forcible and revolutionary, would justify and require a forcible action 
on the part of the friends of the Constitution to resist their attempts. 
It would thus turn out that the Northern members, having in the first 
place been guilty of a tyrannical abuse of their powers under the Con- 
stitution, and finding that that instrument contained a provision 
for the protection of the minority, whose rights they had sought 
to trample on; this majority, I sa}^, finding that they were baulked 
in their efforts by the Constitution itself, would a second time put 
themselves in the wrong, by an appeal to force. In such a case 
we, who might use the means necessary to defeat this revolutionary 
movement, would be standing in defence of the Constitution and laws. 
Feeling the force of as high obligations as could possibly rest on a 
human being, I cannot doubt but that in this contingency Southern 
men will do their duty without regard to any personal peril that may 
be incurred. 

One purpose of such a movement as this would be to teach the North 
that, under the powers granted in the Constitution both to majorities 
and minorities, great mischief in practice might be caused. An appeal 
would thus be made in the most solemn manner to the good sense and 
right feeling of the masses of the people there, and they might then 
decide whether or not they were willing to carry on our political sys- 
tem as we have heretofore done. 

The time when we ought to resort to this mode of action, I hold, 
should be after a clear demonstration that the majority, by an arbi- 
trary exercise of their power, intend to disregard the constitutional 
and natural rights of the southern portion of the confederacy. When 
this shall be made manifest, when we are brought to see that the 
powers of this central government are to be used against our people, 
that instead of being their government, it is to them a foreign and 
hostile government, then it is our duty to withdraw all support from it 
as far as our powers will enable us to do. Northern gentlemen, how- 
34 



(266) 

ever, tell that us it would be more manly, and more becoming a high- 
minded and chivalrous people, to let legislation take its course, and 
resort to revolutionary remedies. Others of them place great reliance 
on the Federal army and navy, and say that without any trouble to 
the North they will, by blockading Southern ports and sending troops 
where they are needed, soon bring the South into submission to such 
laws as they may choose to pass. I have no doubt but that they are 
perfectly willing, as they say, to vote all the money in the treasury to 
have their acts executed. 

But I tell these gentlemen frankly, that however willing I might be 
in matters that concerned myself alone, to make concession when 
there is an appeal to my magnanimity, I do not feel at liberty thus to 
act when the rights of others are at stake. I will not, if I have the 
power to prevent it, needlessly jeopardize those whom I represent. If 
there is to be a collision, I do not wish the sword of Brennus thrown 
into the scale against my section. If there is to .be a struggle, in any 
event, between the South and the North, I desire that this, the com- 
mon government, may stand as a neutral. If I have power, I will, in 
that event, put this government under bonds to keep the peace. As 
in that contest I know that the South will have the right on her side, I 
am not willing that the Federal army and navy shall be used against 
her. After the appropriations for the current year are expended, the 
President will have no more power to use the money in the treasury 
without an appropriation by law than any other person would have. 

Whether Southern members will take the step indicated, I shall not 
assume to say in advance, nor even to assert that they have the politi- 
cal, moral and personal courage thus to defend their own section, 
should their judgment approve the course. These things the public 
must decide for itself, from such evidence as it has from time to time 
of Southern feeling and Seuthern action. Should this remedy be 
adopted, it must bo temporary in its effects, and could hardly be ex- 
pected to prove available after the 4th .of March next. Then, and 
perhaps sooner, the Southern people, seeing that their representatives 
could no longer, by any exertion, protect them, would be compelled 
to rely on their own* efforts. 

There is at this time less manifestation of excitement in the South- 
ern States than was exhibited a little while since. But no one ought 
to be deceived as to the real cause of this comparative quiet. This 
state of things is in no wise attributable to eulogies on the Union, nor 
to denunciation of Southern movements. 

The people of the Southern States suppose they have seen indica- 
tions sufficient to induce them to hope that there ma}'' be an equitable 
adjustment of the question at issue. Nothing has contributed more to 
this than the rejection, by the House of Representatives, of the reso- 
lutions of Messrs. Root and Giddings, embodying the principle of the 
Wilmot proviso. Throughout the South, generally, this has been 
regarded as an indication of a returning sense of justice in the minds 
of the majority. Other movements, since made here, contributed to 
the same result. The liberal views of certain Northern gentlemen 
have operated in the same direction. A great impression has been 



( 267 ) 

made, on the Southern mind especially, by the able, manly and 
national speech of Mr. Webster ; showing, as he did, that he had the 
statesmanlike sagacity to understand the real condition of the country, 
and the courage to meet the crisis. Avowing his readiness to do justice 
to all sections of the Union, according to the letter and spirit of the 
Constitution, he has by that effort contributed, in a most eminent 
degree, to raise the hope that the liberal and just men of the North 
would so far sustain him as in the end to lead to a fair adjustment of 
the difficulty. But should such not be the event — should the Southern 
people find that they have been deceived — there will be a renewal, 
with redoubled energy, of all the former manifestations of excitement. 
No where among them is there to be found that spirit of slavish sub- 
mission to wrong, which it has been sought to inculcate from certain 
quarters. The only question on which they are dvided is, whether they 
ought in the condition of things just now, to speak, and act. Though 
silent they are resolute. The feeling of determination is daily spreading 
and extending itself in all directions. The instant it appears necessary 
for them to act they will move forward like a torrent that, after being 
obstructed for a time, has with gathered strength broken down all that 
barred its way. I trust, then, that those who have the power in their 
hands will at once decide to give us an equitable settlement. There 
is danger in delay, since each month that passes by leaves a wider gap 
between the two sections. For myself, while here as a member, I will 
use my official station to preserve as far as I can the Constitution 
intact in its letter and spirit, and to protect, if possible, from the threat- 
ened wrong, those whom I have the honor in part to represent. Fail- 
ing in this, I shall be found with the people of the South in whatever 
movements they may find necessary to guard their safety and honor. 

Respectfully yours, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

On the side of the South a constant effort was made to impress upon the 
people of the North the knowledge of the danger to be appreliended from 
the passage of the anti-slavery measures. I recollect that one day Mr. Thomp- 
son, a Democratic member from Pennsylvania, said to me, " We wish you 
Southern men to state the danger as strongly as you can, for if we were to give 
way now, our people would think we had been frightened for nothing, and 
would send in our places a set of abolitionists; but if they once can be made 
to see that there is real danger to the Union, then they would beat us if we 
did not give way." 

With a view of developing the opinions of the Southern people more fully 
and uniting them on the best plan of action, for their safety and protection, 
a propostion was made for the holding of a convention at Nashville, Ten- 
nessee. This measure was denounced in tlie strongest terms by the anti- 
slaveiy press as treasonable; it was declared that the assembly ought to be 
dispersed by military force; and the people of Tennessee were exhorted not 
to permit their soil to be desecrated by such traitors. During the contro- 
versy, which was a most animated one, in reply to an invitation to a meeting 
at Charlotte, I addressed a letter, published in the Hornefs JVest, dated 
April 10, 1850, to " Wm. Johnston, Esq., Wm. R. Myers, Esq., Hon. J. W. 
Caldwell, Wm. Lander, Esq., John Walker, Esq., W. B. Hammond, Esq.," 



( 268 ) 

members of the committee, in which, after discussing the reasons for, and 
the propriety of holding such a convention, I used this language: 

House of Representatives, April 10th, 1850. 
******* 

The present frame of the Federal Government was created to advance 
certain objects, and while it does so it will be sustained and cherished 
by the people, but when it has been converted into an engine of oppres- 
sion : when its powers are directed systematically to wage war on the 
institutions and property of half the States, those injured will draw from 
it their confidence and support. 

The people of the South are impelled by no blind veneration for the 
forms of the constitution after its substance and spirit have departed. 
They are not actuated by a brutish feeling like that which the ape evin- 
ces when it carries its dead offspring in its embrace. This government 
being the work of the hands of the American people, is not the object 
of their stupid idolatry. When the Jews worshipped the golden calf, 
they had themselves made, they at least adored a harmless object. None 
but the lowest savage tribes under the influence of fear, the meanest of 
all feelings, make divinities of what they dread. If this government 
should then, as some are striving to make it, become an instrument to 
assail and oppress the parties to it, is it to be supposed that those against 
whom it is directed will uphold and reverence it? 

Whether it will be necessary and proper to hold the convention at the 
time proposed is a point in relation to which there may well be differ- 
ence of opinion, and which affords a proper field for discussion and 
argument. But I can find no justification or even colourable excuse for 
the manner in wliich that convention has been assailed and denounced 
by certain individuals and presses. It is not long since the people of 
the Northern States held a convention at Buffalo to advance objects 
contrary to the whole spirit of the constitution of the United States, 
and which, if carried into efiect, would inevitably have destroyed the 
Union. 

There are from year to year also conventions in the JSTorthern States 
for the declared purpose of overturning the constitution of the United 
States and destroying the present Union, to enable them to invade more 
effectually the institutions of the South, These conventions are not 
gotten up on account of any practical grievance which affects the North, 
but only as they avow to enable them to assail the rights of the South. 
Yet there has been no effort to instigate men to break up these conven- 
tions by violence nor has the military power of the government been 
invoked against them. 

For the first time since the foundation of the government, the South- 
ern people, seeing their rights and even political existence are menaced 
seriously, and in the most alarming manner by these sj^stematic move- 
ments at the North, have proposed to hold a Convention, to consult to- 
gether and devise, and put in practice some plan of resistance, so as sim- 
ply to protect themselves from the threatened wrong. And immediately 
a hue and cry is raised by their open assailants and such other persons 
as secretly sympathise with the anti-slavery party, and the military force 



(269) 

of the government is invoked to disperse or oveiViwe the meeting. When 
they were subject to the British monarchy the people of the colonies 
were permitted to hold their Conventions or Congresses as they were 
then called, from year to year, to declare their grievances and devise 
means of resistance to the oppression with which they were threatened. 

The Convention which met at New York in 1765, had a great influ- 
ence in procuring a repeal of tlie stamp acts. Ten years later, failing 
by these means to obtain relief from other oppressive acts of the parlia- 
ment, they, after meeting in Conventions from year to year, were finally 
obliged to make the Declaration of Independence. 

At this day the British government does not dare attempt to prevent 
by force the hirge meetings held in Ireland, to eflfect a dissolution of the 
Union with Great Britain. Even the immense mass meetings of the 
Chartists having revolutionary objects in view have not been interferred 
with by the government. On the continent too, among the monarchies 
of Europe, the subjects are permitted not only to complain of their griev- 
ances but to demand changes in the forms of government. The monarchs 
on their thrones, sustained by immense standing armies, do not dare to 
interfere with these assemblages. The persons therefore who have un- 
dertaken in this manner to prevent the asseml)linw^of the Southern Con- 
vention, are actuated by ideas not American, not European, but Asiatic. 
The men having such a mental constitution, ought forthwith to leave the 
United States. They cannot with propriety stop in Europe, but will 
find tlie position that nature has fitted them for among the palace slaves 
of the Eastern despots. The fact that such men have the effrontery to 
declare these sentiments in the face of American freemen presents one 
of the worst symptoms of the tinges. 

Should we obtain an honorable adjustment of these difiiculties, it will 
be due entirely, gentlemen, to the determined feeling manifested by the 
Southern people and their representatives. Had the South presented an 
unbroken front, we should ere this have obtained, a better settlement 
than we can hope for at this time. The anti-slavery or free soil party 
of the north were, for a time, encouraged by a few Southern traitors 
who gave them aid and comfort by telling them that the South would 
submit to anything which they might choose to inipose. These people 
are losing the confidence of their northern allies in the cause of aboli- 
tion and will probably soon be viewed by them with as much contempt 
as was Benedict Arnold by Englishmen after the Revolution. 



Your obedient servant. 



T. L. CLINGMAN. 



On the other hand, ihe Union men, so called par excellence^ labored earn- 
estly to keep down all manifestations of Southern feeling, so as to pre 
vent the North from changing its hostile attitude. They also strove as 
much as possible to quiet the Soutliern people, to prevent their understand- 
ing the truth, and to persuade them that no danger was to be apprehended, 
and that all that was being urged on behalf of the South, was intended to 
effect a dissolution of the Union. About the time of the session of the 
Nashville Convention, a body called by the Southern rights men, I met the 
Hon. Howell Cobb, who was a zealous Union man. On my asking him hoAV 



(270) 

matters looked, he replied, with an expression of countenance in which great 
anxiety and sorrow were apparent, " Very bad ; it seems almost certain that 
the resistance party will carry Georgia." Not many days afterwards, on our 
meeting, I asked him what he thought of the prospects. He answered, 
with great elation of manner, "First rate; we can c?vrry Georgia on Rhett's 
speech," Soon afterwards, on my meeting Mr. Clay, he said, with a look of 
triumph, " Have you seen Rhett's speech ? What do you think of that ?" 
Ml*. Rhett, after the termination of the session of the Nashville Convention, 
made a speech, in which he claimed that great progress was made towards 
disunion, and boastfully said that even " Tennessee had wheeled into line." 

Mr. Rhett, with considerable ability, was a gentleman who could make 
liimself particulai'ly offensive to his opponents, and could even present a 
truthful proposition in such a manner as to render it distasteful. He was, on 
the Southern side, a political scarecrow, as Garrison and Giddings were on 
the Northern side; with this difference, however, that whereas the latter dis- 
claimed connection with the Northern party, and thus relieved it of the 
odium that their violent speeches created, Mr. Rhett, on important occasions, 
sought to render himself as prominent as possible, and with merciless friend- 
ship, crippled his allies, 

Gidding's declaration, that the slave ought to " keep his knife close to his 
master's throat," was better calculated " to fire the Southern heart " than 
the ablest speech a "fire-eater" could make. We occasionally see men who 
without the power, by any speech they can utter, to render the slightest aid 
to the party they profess to belong to, nevertheless, possess a negative in- 
fluence as potently repellant as that of a fly in a bowl of soup. Napoleon 
once said that war was a succession of blunders in which those triumphed 
who made the fewest. 

If a party were governed always by its wisest men, it would beat its adver- 
saries easily, and might live forever. 

In tlie progress of the struggle some events occurred, which came very 
near changing the entire order of the battle. They are set forth concisely, 
but with sufticient detail, perhaps, to make them well understood, in a letter 
heretofore publishedtin the New York Herald^ August 17, ISVG, which is as 
follows : 

Washington, August 13, 1876. 
To THE Editor of the Herald : 

My attention has been called to a letter of the Hon. Alexander H. 
Stephens which appears in your paper of the 8th inst,, in which some 
references are made to me in connection with Messers. Stephens and 
Toombs. I understand that there were some previous letters of Mr, 
Thurlow Weed in which mention was made of my name. The trans- 
actions which led to the mistake of Mr, Weed were in themselves 
suflBciently interesting to justify an elaborate article in one of the 
magazines of the day ; but I shall content myself with as concise a state- 
ment as I can present to make the matter understood, I know much 
more of the transactions than any one else, but there are gentlemen 
living to whom all the several facts I shall refer to are known as far 
as they are material. 

During the session of 1850, at which the compromise measures were 
passed, Mr, Clay resided at the National Hotel, I was also a boarder 
there, and, though opposing Mr. Clay's plan, I was in constant com- 



( 271 ) 

munication with him. In fact, if several days had passed without my 
calHug at his room in the evening, he would, on casually meeting me 
about the Capitol, say, "Where have you been all this while? I ex- 
pect you have been in some mischief." lie would say frequently, " I 
wish to hear from you all, and then I will decide for myself." 

During a conversation one evening I said to him that there were 
three forces or obstacles to his scheme of compromise that were suf- 
ficient to defeat it, viz : First, the opposition of the anti-slavery party, 
led by such men as Mr. Seward ; second, that of the administration of 
General Taylor, and third, that of the Southern rights men. That he 
would not win the support of Mr. Seward's party, because they desired 
to keep up sectional agitation for political effect, and were opposed, 
therefore, to any settlement, and that as the administration had a plan 
of its own, it would regard itself as defeated if any other form of 
settlement was adopted; but that the Southern men would be induced 
to co-operate if certain changes were adopted in his scheme of adjust- 
ment. That one of two things would bring him Southern votes enough 
to enable him to pass his bills — either to cut off the southern portion 
of California by the line of thirty-six thirty, or, what I preferred, to 
let California come in whole, and, as an ec[uivalent, on the western 
border of INIissouri, to change the line of thirty-six thirty to the fortieth 
parallel, and, after running it back to what was the eastern border of 
Utah, then deflect it to the south and extend it to the Pacific Ocean 
with the southern boundary of California. I had in a speech made in 
January previously, urged this plan. Mr. Clay rejected instantly the 
proposition to change the line of the Missouri Compromise. He also 
at first said, " You had as well talk of dividing the moon as Califor- 
nia," but, after some further conversation, seemed to yield somewhat, 
though he left his purpose undecided, or at least did not then 
announce it. 

A few evenings after this, on my meeting him, he said impetuously, 
and with seeming disappointment, "You were mistaken, for the South- 
ern Senators will not suj^port my plan, even if we agree to the division 
of California." He then stated that Senator Foote, of Mississippi, had 
that day spoken to Hunter, Soule, Yulee, and Turney, and that they 
all refused. I told him that such a hasty movement as that which he 
had tried was ill-judged and certain to have failed ; that time was 
necessary to make the preliminary movements which, I felt confident 
would bring them in. I then explained in detail to Mr. Clay what I 
proposed should be done. It was in substance this: 

General Taylor, it was understood, was then contemplating the use 
of the army to settle the dispute as to the boundary of Texas. There 
was alarm at the prospect of the country being precipitated into a 
civil war. The Southern Whigs especially were excited, feeling that 
they had already gone as far in their support of the extreme Northern 
views of their party as they could afford to do. My colleague, Mr. 
Outlaw; Mr. Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, and others, were dis- 
posed to abandon the administration if such a policy was insisted on. 
After finding that most if not all of the more moderate of the South- 
ern Whigs concurred in these views, a caucus was called composed of 



(272) 

Southern Whigs alone. After a full interchange of views it was agreed 
that a proper effort should be made to induce General Taylor to change 
his policy, and in the event of failure so to change his purpose it was 
evident that the Southern Whigs, probably all with the exception of 
Mr. Stanley, would abandon the administration, cut loose from the 
Northern Whigs and act with the Democratic party. Three gentlemen 
were selected to confer with General Taylor — Mr. Charles M. Conrad, 
of Louisiana, a personal friend of General Taylor and a Representative 
from his own State; Mr. Humphrey Marshall, who had served under 
him in Mexico, and Mr. Toombs, who had been one of the most active 
and influential men in bringing forward General Taylor as a Presi- 
dential candidate. In order that there might not seem to be any menace 
implied in the movement, it was agreed that these gentlemen should 
converse with General Taylor separately. Mr. Conrad first saw him 
and stated to me the result of the interview. He said that the Presi- 
dent was obstinately fixed in his purpose, and that his mind was so 
prejudiced that he regarded the opposition to his scheme as factious, 
and stimulated by Messrs. Clay and Webster from chagrin because he 
had superseded them as a Presidential candidate, while Cass was hos- 
tile on account of his defeat. Mr. Marshall soon after had an interview 
with a similar result. While speaking of it to me he burst into a fit 
of laughter, saying, "The old fellow takes the militaiy view of the 
question; he said he had ninety men from the North and only thirty 
from the South (referring to the relative number of Whig members 
from the two sections), and asked, 'Am I to give up my ninety in the 
North for your thirty in the South?' " 

Mr. Toombs did not see General Tajdor until after he had been taken 
ill, but before he was supposed to be in danger. He became ill, it may 
be remembered, after attending the celebration of the Fourth of July, 
and died on the 9th. About the time of his death some of those papers 
which were in sympathy with Mr. Weed's views had exaggerated state- 
ments of Mr. Toombs' interview, and represented him as standing over 
the dying President and using threatening language to him. I pre- 
sume that Mr. Weed's mistake is due to some vague recollections of 
these, publications. 

The death of the President changed the condition of the whole 
question, and the caucus did not reassemble again. The machinery 
with which the Southern Whigs were to be detached on this question 
from their Northern associates was destroyed. I had felt confident 
that General Taylor would refuse our request, and was equally confi- 
dent that in such a contingency the Southern Whigs would unite with 
the democracy North and South, and under the lead of Mr. Clay, aided 
by General Cass, make a common war on the administration. As Mr. 
Clay's personal influence would have brought in a few Northern Whigs 
we should have had about two-thirds of the Congress, and would easil}^ 
have carried a substantial measure of compromise. It would have 
been an extension of the Missouri line to the Pacific, or such a modi- 
fication as would have been an improvement. We should have escaped 
the mischievous non-intervention ambiguity, which, in its results, 
verified the evil then apprehended from it. We should thus have 



( 27S ) 

avoided the excitement resulting from the Kansas and Nebraska 
struggle, which expedited the collision between the sections many- 
years, and likewise the split at Charleston, wliich precipitated the 
country into immediate war. 

The death of General Taylor threw the issue again back into its 
condition of uncertainty. Mr. Chi}^ changed his line of policy. He had 
refused to take the amendment of Norris, though he said it would if, 
adopted, give him four additional votes in the Senate for his bills. He 
now, however, decided to accept it. Toward the latter part of July I 
had some conversation with hira in the iSenate. That morning he was 
dressed all in spotless white, except his blue dress coat, and looked more 
buoyant in spirits than I had seen iiim during the session. On my 
reminding hira of former conversations he said that he would take 
Norris' amendment and gain votes enough to pass the bill. I said:; 
'• Mr. Cla}^, you have been disappointed three times this session." With 
an impetuous wave of his hand and a haughty look, he said: "The 
administration was the only obstacle to the passage of my measures 
and I shall now carry them without difficulty." I walked across the 
chamber and spoke to Messrs. Hunter and Soule, who were standing 
together. It may be proper to explain that though they and their 
Southern associates would not support Mr. Clay's plan, yet the}^ pro- 
tected it from destruction by the attacks made on it by the Seward 
wing of its opponents, in the hope that it might ultimately be gotten 
into such a shape that they would support it. On my stating to them 
what Mr. Clay had decided on Mr. Hunter said, "Then you think we 
had better let it be destroyed." I told him I was decidedly of that 
opinion. Immediately afterward, as the record uf the proceedings 
show, the compromise of Mr. Clay was cut to pieces, and a single plank 
in it, the Utah bill, was passed. On the morning afterward Mr. Clay 
made a denunciatory speech in the Senate and went up to Newport to 
recruit his health. Senator Pierce's bill, in certain respects more 
favorable to the South came in, and ultimately the series of measures 
w^ere adopted called the Compromise of 1850. 

Not having seen either of Mr. Weed's letters, I can only infer their 
contents from reading that of Mr. Stephens. I never had a conversa- 
tion with Gen. Taylor on a political subject, unless it was a casual remark 
at ont^ of his dinners or evening receptions. Nor did I ever hear of 
any one having such an interview as that spoken of by Mr. Weed. "I 
scarcely think such a thing could have occurred without my knowl- 
edge, for I felt a great interest in the issue, was very active, seldom 
going to bed during that ten months' session till after two o'clock. 
Having learned who were the late sitters up I was able to occupy 
myself with interviews till a late hour in the evenings, and from week 
to week I was able to understand the position on the question of 
almost every member of each House during the session. The non-in- 
tervention scheme I considered as an ingeniously devised stratagem to 
produce a collision between the sections, because it was regarded at the 
North as making all the territory free, while at the South it was asser- 
ted that under it all the Territories were slaveholding. It is to me a 
matter of regret that my declarations, in 1851, that in ten years on 
35 



( 274 ) 

account of that settlement, we should have either a dissolution of the 
Union or a civil war, were verified by the event. While Mr. Weed 
and his friends regarded the death of General Taylor as a loss to their 
side, I both at that time and ever since looked on it as one of those 
important events that greatly tended to produce the results which 
subsequently occurred. 

Respectfully, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

During the oontimiance of the contest, it was obvious that the Southern 
side was steadily gaining strength. Not only were the extreme measures of 
the anti-slavery pai'ty rejected; but gradually the people of the North were 
coming to the conclusion that the peace and safety of the whole country 
would be more secure if a settlement was made, which did substantial justice 
to both sections. While the body of the Northern members of Congress 
evidently wished to yield as little as possible, yet there were enough of them 
combined with the Southern vote to secure the passage of a just measure. 
In September, however, several Southern gentlemen, who had been standing- 
till then on what was regarded as the Southern side, suddenly changed their 
attitude, and the so-called compromise of 1850 was adopted. I then, and 
ever since have felt confident, that if they had stood still a little longer, 
such was the anxiety of the Northern people for a settlement, that far better 
terms could have been obtained for the South; such terms in fact as would 
have produced a permanent peace between the sections. 

Some days after the matter had been disposed of, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens,, 
a gentleman with whom, on account of his extreme anti-slavery views, I had 
never been intimate, sat down by my seat and said, " Clingman, I know 
yon are a candid man; tell why it was, that after you all had scared our 
people in the North so much, that they were willing to give you whatever 
you asked, that some of you men gave way, and surrendered every thing to 
us, and got nothing for their own section ?" I replied, in substance, that I 
thought they had made a great mistake and had shown an entire lack of 
judgment. He answered, " Well, you may depend upon it, that you will 
never again be able to scare our people; they will say that if after making- 
all this fuss and getting up so much excitement, you were willing to give up 
everything, and get nothing for your section, that anything else you may 
attempt is all a sham, and that nothing serious is meant by it." This state- 
ment corresponded so well with my own impressions, that his words im- 
printed themselves strongly on my memory. 

The passage of the measures was, however, generally received with sq^tis- 
f action, and bands of music waited on some of the prominent Union savers 
and heard patriotic speeches. 

This session, continuing for ten months, was not only tlie longest known 
in the history of the government, but it was also the most interesting and 
eventful. The House of Representatives was superior in ^he character of 
the members composing it, to any I ever knew, and its debates were the 
ablest, surpassing as a whole those in the Senate at that session. 



{ 275 ) 



[A large portion of this speech was devoted to the consideration of the tariff and 
industrial resources of the Southern States, especially of North Carolina. As the 
the tariflf question is suflSciently discussed in two speeches which follow — the first 
part of the speech is omitted.] 

SPEECH 

ON THE FUTURE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT, DELIV- 
ERED IN COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE OF THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 15th, 1851. 

Mr. Clingman said : 

^ * * -:i' * * * 

"The North has made a great mistake in getting up the late anti- 
slav^er}^ agitation. Instead of endeav^oring to limit slavery to the terri- 
tory where it now exists, if they had consulted their interests, they would 
have consented to its extension even to the shores of the Pacific. By 
thus allowing- the slaves and their owners to be diffused over a wide ex* 
tent of country, they would liave been kept employed in agriculture, 
and the competition of their labor would thereby have been escaped, 
and they would have continued good customers. But by limiting them 
as to territory, they will be driven, wliether they will it or not, into 
manufacturing for themselves. The conduct of the North, while in my 
judgment a crime to us, was like Napoleon's invasion of Spain, a blunder 
for them. What they intended as an injury, like many other seeming 
evils, may prove in the end a benefit. So wise and benevolent is the 
system ordained by Providence, that it usually depends upon ourselves 
wJiether a particular occurrence shall in its results be an evil or a bless- 
ing. In the language of Burke, "our antagonist is our helper." The 
energy which we have summoned to our aid to enable us to resist a 
threatened danger, will give us strength for a forward movement. A 
great impulse has been given to the Southern mind within the last twelve 
months. Much of this is due to the direction, purposely given to the 
debates of the last session by some of the speakers. While, therefore, I 
cannot too strongly denounce the acts of the last session in relation to 
tlse Mexican territory, I do not, nor have I ever pretended that they 
would be followed by any great immediate practical injury to us. Un- 
doubtedly depriving us of all share in the public territory, and limiting 
slavery to the area it now occupies, is the greatest injury, with reference 
to that interest, which the government could possibly inflict on us, until 
it shall have attacked the institution in the States themselves. 

The other measures proposed by the Abolitionists are ccanparatively 
insignificant in their ultimate practical efforts. I do not pretend that 
this exclusion could be claimed as a political victory by the Free-soil or 
Abolition party. That party had staked itself on the passage of a posi- 
tive act of exclusion, viz: the Wilmot Proviso, or Jefiersonian ordinance. 
After a few weeks discussion it was driven from this ground, being de- 
feated on a direct vote. It then fell back on what was called the Presi- 



(276) 

dent's plan, to-wit : the admission of territories as free States. In this 
movement, after a long struggle, thej were frustrated and foiled by the 
dilatory motions which the minoritj^ resorted to, and which it was seen 
could and would be indefinitely prolonged. It is true, however, that 
the measures actually passed, did in the end practically give them the 
exclusion of slavery which they desired. This, however, was owing to 
the action of Southern men, who by their votes consented that this sec- 
tion of the Union should be excluded. What I have a right to complain 
of is, that after the Abolition party stood thus defeated before the coun- 
try, Southern men should have been willing to give them practically all 
the fruits of the victory. It is said, however, that the South saved its 
honor. So did the Mexican army at Monterey. But though it capitu 
lated with the honors of war, it surrendered up the city, the object for 
which the battle was fought. If we had been overpowered and defeated 
by this party, I could better have borne their seizing the fruits of the 
victory. By giving up thus all the Mexican territory to them, in addi- 
tion to that previousl}^ held by the government, and made free by acts 
of Congress, we have put it in their power to call to their aid, at a future 
day, twenty or thirty additional free States. If we have found them 
troublesome now, will they not be more formidable when thus strength- 
ened, should they be roused to another attack ? It is this view of the 
future which has produced the deep dissatisfaction existing in the South. 
Our people feel that the outposts have been surrendered to oiir enemies, 
and that courage and firmness can alone protect them. Even those 
among us who have defended or apologized for these measures, have 
tacitly acknowledged the peril to which they subject us, by insisting 
that the North should be held under the most rigid obligation not to 
renew the attack. Calling themselves i^ar excellence Union men, and 
stigimatised by their opponents as submissionists, they have nevertheless 
found it necessary to lay down a strong disunion platform, I say a 
strong disunion platform ; because they have declared their purpose to 
dissolve the Union upon issues and contingencies which no one, not even 
the most ultra thought of making a year ago. If the Abolition party 
encouraged, as it probably will be, by these great acquisitions, shall 
make another formidable movement against us, it will most probably 
result in the overthrow of the government, and the disruption of the 
confederacy. I do not apprehend, however, that they will be able to 
succeed in abolishing slavery. Two plans are entertained for aftecting 
this object. The first is immediately and directly by legislation to 
attack it in the States. This mode has not now advocates enough to 
excite much apprehension in the public mind. The other plan, by 
which they expect to accomplish the same thing, at a day not far distant 
in a nation's progress, is the following: They say that the slaves of the 
country, being confined to the States where they are now held, will so 
increase in numbers in connection with the multiplication of the white 
race, that their labor will become unprofitable, not yielding more than 
enough for their bare subsistence, and that their owners will find it advan- 
tageous to abandon them as property, and allow them to go free. They do 
not stop to calculate how vast will be the misery inflicted by thus crowd- 
ing together our population. When the pressure has become so great 
that the labor of the slaves will no longer support them, what will be the 



( 277 ) 

condition of the free laborers under the same rate of wages? To cany 
out tlieir fanatical and wicked objects they are perfectly willing to place 
the whole Southern country in a condition of indescribable misery. 

The Northern anti-slavery men express the desire that they should 
then be amalgamated with the white race. The Southern men who 
maintain this hypothesis, are desirous of colonizing them" abroad. As 
nobody pretends that we are able to send off the numbers we now have, 
I do not think it worth while to enter into an argument to show that 
when greatly increased in numbers, they cannot be thus gotten away 
with more facility. However benevolent the scheme, I have never 
regarded it as sufficiently plausible to merit attack. But when is it 
likely that the liberation itself in this mode will occur ? A distinguished 
statesman whose declarations have great weight with many of our citi- 
zens, is represented in the newspapers recently, to have expressed the 
opinion at a meeting, held in this city, that when the number of slaves 
in the United States shall have become three or four times as great as it 
now is, that the contingency will happen, and that they will become 
free by the voluntary act of their owners. As the slaves have been 
doubling their numbers, in a little more than twenty -five years, that 
condition of things might be expected to be arrived at in the next fifty 
years. In that time the population of the slaveliolding States might 
amount to nearly forty millions, of which, nearly one-third would be 
slaves. Those States embrace together an area of nearly nine hundred 
thousand squai-e miles. A population of forty millions diffused over 
them, need not be more dense than that of Kentucky now is. It might 
go lip to more than fifty millions, before it became as dense as that of 
the State of Maryland. In these States, slave labor is not so unprofita- 
ble that its owners are willing voluntarily to give it up, or even to take 
the high prices which it commands further South. Yet these States are 
not supposed to be remarkably adapted to the profitable use of slave 
labor— nor are they as a whole, aljove the average fertility of the slave 
holding States. No only, too, are they able, permanently to maintain 
their present population, but nobody, I think, doubts but what it might 
be greatly increased, without a material change in their condition or 
prosperity. Is there any reason to apprehend that the Southern States 
are incapable, as a whole, of sustaining a population proportionally as 
great, or even mush greater? It is the opinion of a friend of mine, on 
the other side of the House, from Mississippi [Mr. Thompson] that in a 
single ]>end in the river of the same name, there is a body of land 3'et 
untouched, sufficiently extensive and fertile to employ profitably in the 
culture of cotton, all the slaves now existing in the State of Virginia. 
That our population would, in time, become too dense for a comfortable 
existence, I do not question. But the period must be longer, than that 
sup])osed. Before that time has arrived, possibly the slaves may, in the 
opinion of some, disappear in another mode. 

But does any man imagine that we shall not acquire additional terri- 
tory in much less than fifty years. Why, Mexico even now seems to be 
on the eye of falling to pieces. I should not be surprised, at any time, 
to hear that the adventurous gold hunters now in California, had organ- 
ized an expedition and seized upon the Mexican provinces immediately 
south of them. When Texas is filled up by our emigrants they cannot 



(278) 

be prevented from passing the Rio Grande and revolutionizing the neigh- 
boring provinces. They are destined to be occupied by our slavehold- 
ers population. It will fill up all the country around the gulf, includ- 
ing the peninsula of Yucatan, and perhaps th'e northern portion of the 
South American continent. This state of things will be likely to occur 
even before our interest requires it. That whether it be desirable or not, 
there is no power on this continent to prevent it. Mexico is altogether 
too feeble. This government itself cannot do it. It had as well attempt 
to curb the waves of the ocean. I say boldly, that if the government 
makes the effort, it will itself perish in the attempt. As soon as we feel 
the actual want of additional territory, we shall occupy it either with or 
without the aid of this government. Our right to take it will be neither 
better nor worse than that by which we have driven back the original 
Indian population. Even now, we are strong enough to take care of 
ourselves against any forces that can be brought to bear upon us, and 
we shall be getting relatively stronger for some time to come. Sir, the 
returns of the census for the past year will present a condition of things 
not anticipated by many persons. Within the last ten years, some two 
millions of foreigners have arrived in this country. They have almost 
all become residents of the Northern States. They, of themselves, were 
sufficient to have given the North more than twenty additional members 
of Congress under the new apportionment. But, in point of fact, if you 
except the two members she gets by the admission of California, she will 
gain nothing, or at most, but two or three members, Notwithstanding, 
therefore, this great advantage, as well as others which the North has 
had, the South will nevertheless very nearly, if not quite, hold her rela- 
tive strength. This is due to thefact that our people, being mostly agri- 
culturists, enjoy more of the comforts of life, and are increasing in num- 
bers faster from natural causes. The condition of society at the North 
is less favorable to this progress because of the numbers engaged in 
manufacturing, and as servants to the wealthy, who are without domi- 
cils, and who are frequently reduced to pauperism. 

The next decade will show a large increase in our Southern popula- 
tion. We are now nearly ten millions, and there is no body of people 
of the same number upon earth, better able to defend itself against 
attack Slavery, instead of being an element of weakness, is one of 
positive strength. The amount of force which any nation can keep in 
the field in time of war, depends not merely on the number of its men, 
but also on the amount of its production. Few countries, if any, can 
sustain permanently in the field, more than one-sixth of their adult male, 
population. We have a population intelligent, enterprising, high-spir- 
ited, and brave, and ever ready to embark in military expeditions. 

It is due to truth to state, that from the formation of the government 
down to the present time, in all our wars, the South has, in |)roportion 
to its population, sent into the field a larger number of soldiers than the 
North. Nor have tiiose men in battle, either where the snows of Canada 
lie, or under the tropical sun of Mexico, exhibited any such want of 
courage or conduct, as to justify this government in branding them as 
inferior to the men of the Northern section, or in depriving them of 
their proper share of the benefits of the Constitution. 



(279) 

Oar population is large enough to suppl}" any call that could be made 
on it for soldiers, and still leave at home a sufficient number for indus- 
trial occupations. We must have nearly one million of free men capable 
of bearing arms. Our slave population, too, because it is all constantly 
employed in labor, produces probably more than the same number of 
free men in any part of the Union, because a large portion of the free 
are unemployed during much, if not the whole of their time. No sane 
man can imagine that we need have serious fears of an attack from either 
the Northern States or any foreign power. When our numbers are 
swelled to thirty or lifty millions, will we be relatively less able? Sir, 
we shall have the power to take possession, and hold as much of the 
American continent as is necessary for our comfortable existence. If 
this government shall take position against our progress, it will be over- 
thrown. Great as are its powers, they are not sufficient to enable it 
thus to destroy us. Whether it shall continue to exist or not, he who 
lives longest among us will see the Southern States — 

"Still free and beautiful, and far 
Aloof from desolation.'" 

But this government was created to wage no such war against us. It 
was made by the States for their protection, and that of their existing 
institutions. They intended to invest it with no powers to destroy their 
existing state of society or to foment revolutions among their inhabitants. 
Should it, by abandoning its original purposes, be instigated to such 
attempts by any process, whether sudden or slow, then I say down with 
the government. One of my strongest grounds of objection to the action 
of the last session was, that I regarded it as a great disunion movement. 
There is reason to fear that the additional strength given the free States 
may at a future day embolden them to make an attempt upon us which 
will result in the overthrow of the government. It is apprehension of 
this which painfully affects the minds of the Southern people. They are 
apprehensive of injury from no government upon earth, except their 
own, which should be their protector. The action here has filled their 
minds with alarm. If any one could satisfy them that they would 
receive no injury from this quarter, he would diffuse general joy among 
them. 

One great benefit, Mr. Chairman, has resulted from the late slavery 
agitation. Heretofore our people had been accustomed to think of the 
Union with a sort of religious reverence. They were disposed to idolize 
the work of their own hands. But all superstitions are degrading and 
debasing in their effects. I rejoice that our people have been liberated 
from its influences. The agitation here, and the discussions attendant 
on it, have produced a great revolution in the sentiments of our popula- 
tion. They had been accustomed to rest in thought on the idea of the 
Union as the ark of safety, but they have been aroused from the delu- 
sion. One of our citizens, Mr, Stevens, while travelling in Central 
America, experienced there the shock of a violent earthquake. He 
declared that it had produced a great permanent revolution in his feel- 
ings, in one respect. Till then he said, he had been accustomed, when 
upon the surface of the earth, to feel secure, and that he rested on a 



(280) 

foundation firm and stable. But ever afterwards, he could only think 
of the solid globe itself as a frail tremulous thing, I'eady to give way 
under him at any moment. The shock of an earthquake has passed 
under the minds of our people, and they no longer rest on the Union as 
the solid rock of safety. I rejoice that it is so. I wish to see them bold, 
self-relying and confident of being able with the favor of Providence to 
guard their liberties, and preserve their happiness. It will be long before 
confidence, that "plant of slow growth," will floiirisli again. Rather 
let them realize the great truth, that "eternal vigilance," is the price of 
liberty. They have met too with its merited scorn, and trampled under 
their feet the doctrine of slavish subserviency to the government of 
their own creation. Certain professed national organs and orators have 
preached devotion to the Union in any event, and under all circum- 
stances. A baser sentiment never fell from the lips of a mortal. It is 
substantially tlie same with the doctrine of passive obedience, and non- 
resistance, which brought the head of Charles the First to the block. 
Since then no Englishnum has had the effrontery to avow such opinions. 
Its only supporters in this country formerly were the tories of the revo- 
lution. Those who have preached the doctrine in our day, will only 
find their fellows among the palace slaves of Asiatic despotism. Their 
proper position is below everything that Providence has created, when 
in its natural state. Even the meanest reptiles struggle upward against 
the oppressor. The American people justly regard these individuals as 
degraded below the rest of animated nature. 

While the government lasts, it is our duty to endeavor to keep it in 
the proper track. The danger is not from violence. The sword has 
even been a great destroyer. It has consumed feeble communities and 
States. But taxation has been the destroyer of the mighty. By govern- 
ment exaction in its different forms, great nations have perished. The 
decay of the Koman empire has been attributed by the abolition writers 
of England, as by their echoes in this country to slavery. But the facts 
and reasonings of abolitionists, are alike destitute of truth. Slavery 
existed in Rome from the days of Romulus. During the prosperous ages 
of the republic, the full tide of conquest enabled them to make the largest 
number of captives. The servile population greatly outnumbered the 
free. These were the days of the highest prosperity of the eternal city. 
During the decaying years of the empire, the number of slaves was 
rather diminished. But government taxation in its various forms, exhi- 
bited a frightful increase. The exactions of the governors ruined the 
remote provinces, or drove them into successful rebellion, Italy was 
then drained of its life-blood to support the populace, which concentra- 
ted itself at Rome to receive the largesses of tlie government. In this 
way died the vast Roman empire. A similar condition of things is now 
being presented to our own eyes in Turkey. The exactions of the gov- 
ernment have desti'oyed its vitality. The population is concentrating at 
Constantinople, the point of government expenditure. The most fertile 
lands of Asia Minor and Turkey, in Europe, are rapidly becoming a 
desert waste; and the magnificent Ottoman empire is now little better 
than a dead carcass. In this way perished the old empires, which form- 
erly existed on the banks of the Euphrates. The extended ruins only 
indicate to the passing traveler over the desert, how destructive have 



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been the exactious of those who have held dominion over the country. 
Where there is no security, where no limit exists to the rapacity of the 
governors, there can be no inducement to the subject to labor or to save. 

What is now going on in British India exemplifies the process. Forty- 
five per cent., nearly one-half of the gross product is now exacted from 
the agriculturists, in many if not all the districts. Can that country 
live permanently under the system? Ireland is oppressed by similar 
exactions. A prosperous country like Cuba or the United States can 
bear a great deal. With us the direct taxation has not heretofore been 
great, but of the indirect there has been reason to complain. Permit me 
to take from an individual as much as I choose of all his purchases, and 
I may inflict upon him heavy oppression. The Southern States of the 
Union are sending from their limits not less than one hundred and fifty 
million of dollars worth of their domestic productions, and they receive 
or should receive an equal value in return for them. But the govern- 
ment takes from them as much as it pleases. They may, it is true, escape 
this burthen, by manufacturing for themselves everything they consume. 
But if the anti-slavery party should get the entire control of the govern- 
ment, as they are laboring to do, and have a prospect of accomplishing, 
when they shall have brought in a sufficient number of free States, may 
at their will make the Constitution, possibly in form, certainly in prac- 
tice, what they desire it to be. As our system of society is radically dif- 
ferent from theirs, they might so shape their legislation as to isolate us 
and take away our substance entirel}^, and have the Southern States little 
better than a dead body, fastened to a living one. This condition of 
things is what we have most to dread. Already is it apprehended by 
sagacious men, that the character and action of this central government 
is undergoing a total change. Sir, what was the object of its creation, 
and with what attributes was it originally invested? It was created to 
efi'ect two main objects. In the first place to manage our relations with 
foreign countries. Hence it became necessary to invest it with the power 
of making war, treaties, and regulating commerce with them. In the 
second place it was authorized to preserve proper relations between the 
different States, and by consequen'ce to regulate commerce between 
them and coin their money. 

These were the main, I might say the sole objects of the creation of 
the Constitution. To carry them into efi'ect, it was necessary that the 
government should have the means of svistaining itself, and hence the 
taxing power was given. But it was never intended that the federal 
government should control the mere municipal relations of its citizens or 
interfere with their private rights. These were left to be regulated'by 
the several States composing the Union. Had the government confined 
itself to the exercise of these two classes of powers which alone were 
clearly delegated to it, it would have escaped most of the difticulty which 
it has hitherto encountered. Especially ought it to have abstained from 
attacking interests which it was created to preserve. It has encountered 
difliculties by its officious intermeddling with what it had no positive 
authority to touch. For example, its interference with tlie question of 
slavery has very nearly been the cause of its destruction. Twelve of the 
thirteen States which made the Constitution were slaveholding, and 
while they gave it express power to defend and preserve the institution 
36 



(282) 

of slavery, they invested it with no authority to overthrow or even to 
make war on it. The government, too, has involved itself in difficulty 
by its attempts, through the niedinm of tariff and navig-ation laws, to 
favor certain classes of its citizens by the imposition of burthens upon 
others. It has also produced much discontent by its interference and 
connection with banking; operation:^ and other branches of private busi- 
ness. Nobody will dispute but what it might have abstained from all 
these things and still carried out every object which it was created to 
effect. Yes, sir, it might abandon all these pretensions, and accomplish 
only the better the great purposes of its existence. 'Whj then should it 
not be limited in its action to its own proper sphere? In this way it 
might give itself a perpetual and indefinite existence. 

Our citizens are ambitious of having a widely extended and magnifi- 
cent empire. The wish of their hearts might possibly be gratified, and 
the whole continent be subject to one sway, if this central government 
should, in its action, be limited to its necessary and proper objects. Let 
it content itself with conducting successfully our foreign affairs, and pre- 
serving the relations between its component States, leaving them to regu- 
late all domestic matters. Let it be, as many desire it to be, the great 
central sun ; but let it be content with performing the office, which the 
sun does in the firmament of the heavens. That vast luminary regulates 
the orbits of the planets, preserves their due dependence on each other, 
and controls their motions, biit itself remains at rest in the centre. Does 
any one' regard its office as less important, because of its quiet, control- 
ling as it does the action of the entire system, and preserving the due 
dependence of all its parts? Or does any one suppose tliat it could 
assume the rapid motions of the little planet Mercury, without deranging 
and destroying the whole solar system ? So if this central government 
shall attempt to assume the active and lesser functions, which properly 
belong to the several States, it will destroy the existing system. It may 
possibly create in its stead a vast and extended despotism, I rather 
hope, however, that the attempts would be followed by the disruption 
of the government, and the throwing off of several confederacies. The 
fragments tlius separated, would be sufficiently large to preserve their 
lil)erties, and advance the sum of human happiness. Is not the appre- 
hension even now constantly expressed, that the go^'ernment is totally 
changing its limited character, and Ijecoming a useless and mischievous 
machine? Why, members on this floor often pay no more regard to con- 
stitutional limitations, than they would do in a popular meeting, where 
the unchecked will of the majority controls all things. 

Many of our people are beginning to suppose this government derelict 
in its duties, if it does not su]>ply them regularly with school books and 
garden seeds. Look at the enormous increase in its expenditures. They 
are now amounting to more than fifty millions annually, I do not 
intend to cast reproach on the President or his advisers, constituting the 
cabinet, I respect them all highly, and regard them as well qualified, 
both intellectually and morally, for the stations which they fill. The 
estimates for expenditure, which they send in to us, will be almost assur- 
edly increased in this Ilouse. After passing through this body, they 
will have vast additions made to them in the Senate. On the last day, 
or next to the last of the session, they will be returned to us with a hun- 



1283) 

dred or two hundred amendments, amounting in the aggregate to an 
expenditure of millions. For want of time to investigate them, or to 
save the' general appropriation bills from defeat, because the Senate is 
obstinate on fhe last day of the session, we are obliged to assent to ap- 
propriations, which would not in this House, after a proper investiga- 
tion, find supporters enough to obtain a division on the vote rejecting 
th^m. From the very situation in which we find ourselves placed here, 
it is impossible that there should be that feeling of responsibility, and 
that degree of vigilance which exists in our State legislatures. The sev- 
eral States ought to leave to individuals the accomplishment of all such 
works as private enterprize can effect, because of the greater cheapness of 
its operations. For a similar reason wo ought to leave to the States the 
execution of whatever can be accom])lished V^y them. I know that for 
the evil under which we labor, it is dithcult to find a remedy, but an 
honest effort on the ])art of all of us concerned in the administration of 
this federal government, would be productive of much good. The clamor 
raised against Mr. Van Buren's administration for its extravagance, 
caused a reduction of its expenditures in its last year, from forty down 
to twenty-two millions. During the whole fbur years of the administra- 
tion of Mr. Tyler, the Whig party having come into power upon profes- 
sions and principles of economy, kept their expenditures down to this 
standard. During the first year of Mr. Polk's adm^inistration, the ex- 
penses were not materially increased. But now, an interval of only five 
years having elapsed, the}^ are greatly more than doubled. Still there 
is much reason to fear that they will be rapidly increased. This results 
from the fact that while the people furnish the money, the government 
determines the amount of the expenditure. 

Where an individual is responsible for his own expenses, it is often 
difficult for him to keep his outlay within proper limits. But wherever 
one furnishes the money and another expends it, profus^ion and extrava- 
gance almost invariably are the results. Had we not then better refuse 
all expenditures, and decline to exercise all powers but those which are 
necessary to the carrying out of the known' and well defined objects of 
this government? The case is surrounded with difiiculty, however, 
because it is easy to carry into excess and abuse powers, the exercise of 
which cannot well be dispensed with. I have sometimes thought, Mr. 
Chairman, that a striking difference between the modes of thinking in the 
southern and northern portions of our Union, might be found in this : 
The people of the Southern States engaged in agriculture live far apart, 
are accustomed to reflect much, and are not easily driven to excess. In 
the North, the people are in close contact, more restless in their habits, 
more readily act upon each other, they show more quickness and energy in 
their movements, and manifest more excitability. They are more readily 
brought -up to eflicient action, but reflect less on the ultimate tendency 
of their movements. The excitable population and presses of their 
large cities, as sensitive to the change of a day as the thermometer itself, 
exert a controlling influence over the sentiment of the ISTor.th. Hence 
the Northern population, acting as States and corporations, have shown 
great efliciency, and made extraordinary progress. They have not, how- 
ever, exhibited so much of that enlarged philosophy, which is essential 
to the constitution of a statesman of the first order. Their puJblic men 



(284) 

are nsuall}^ too seuRitive to popular impulse, and exhibit often too little 
independence of thought and action. The Southern States seem to have 
produced a larger number ef independent, self-reljnng and philosophic 
statesmen. In the action of bodies of men aggregated as States and 
corporations, this spirit of great activity and energy works well, and the 
Northern States havp made extraordinary progress in their movements. 

In the Southern States, on the contrary, the individuals live more 
alone, are accustomed to depend more on their own resources, have 
a feeling of greater independence, and have more time for reflection. 
They are less sensitive to immediate popular impressions, exhibit 
often a stronger will as individuals, and are more accustomed to take 
an enlarged and philoso]>hic view of a subject. This, as it has some- 
times been alleged by the Abolitionists, may be due in part to the 
habit of dominion over their slaves and the pride of superior caste. But 
whether attributable in any degree or not to such a cause, it is cer- 
tainly true that while they have accomplished less, through the medium 
of the State governments wherein mere activity and impulse are more 
essential, they seem to have exerted a greater control upon the action of 
this central government. It is a common remark throughout the North, 
that certain systems and movements which are complained of with us, 
really had their origin with Southern statesmen. This is undoubtedly 
true. The Virginians were opposed to the indefinite importation of 
slaves, and advocated the prohibition to take effect after the year 1808, 
and Mr. Jefferson undoubtedly^ favored the exclusion of slavery north of 
the Ohio river. But when the New England politicians, that in the 
Convention which made the Federal Constitution, went for the prolonga- 
tion of the slave trade to the latest period proposed, subsequently shifted 
their position and assumed the strongest anti-slavery ground in the Mis- 
souri controversy, it is equall}^ certain that Mr. Jefferson condemned 
their movement. It is also true that the doctrine of protection to our 
domestic industry, had its early and most strenuous advocates among 
Southern statesmen. As soon, however, as it was taken up by the masses 
of the North, it was pressed to an extent of extravagant protection and 
even prohibition. The doctrine of internal improvement by the general 
government, is likewise affirmed to have had a Southern origin. But its 
Northern friends are now those who are pushing it into great abuses, as 
we think, accompanied with profuse and wasteful expenditure. As the 
action of this government, therefore, was intended to be limited in a high 
degree, and restricted to the exercise of well defined powers, the preva- 
lent mode of thinking at the South, seems to harmonise best with its 
nature, and it may be owing to some such cause as this that the public 
judgment has more frequently intrusted its management to them. It is 
]>ossible too, that the great influx of foreigners into the Northern States, 
ignorant as they are utterly of the true theory of our government, and 
its complicated checks and balances, has been a material element in modi- 
fying the tone of opinion and sentiment in the North. 

Should the action of the government in future be directed by those 
who are subject to these influences, it remains to be seen whether it will 
preserve its former character and usefulness. The agitation of the last 
two years having partially destroyed the old part}- organizations, and 
having very nearly annihilated party animosities, in the present calm an 



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opportunity is afforded us for examinins; the principles of the govern- 
ment, and estimating properly the effects of its past action. Should new 
parties arise or the old ones be essentially modified, they ought to be 
made to stand as much as possible upon sound principles. What are 
likely to be the successful movements of a party character, it is not easy 
to decide. We were all amused ypsterday with the attempts of the gen- 
tleman from Maryland, (Mr. McLane) in reply to the questions of the 
gentleman from South Carolina, to explain in what Democracy consisted. 
His definition was that a Democrat was he who stood by and honestly 
carried out the objects and determinations of the party organization. 
This definition he twice gave in reply to questions. 

Mr. McLane said this was not his statement, and proposed to explain, 

Mr. Clingman continued. 

I regret that the hands of the clock are moving too rapidly, to permit 
me to give the gentleman the floor. I may be mistaken about the pre- 
cise terms he did use. The members of the House generally are quite 
as likely to recollect "what he did say, as he or I. He said further, in 
continuation, that a Democrat in 1848 was he that voted for Cass and 
Butler, and in 1844 for Polk and Dallas. Amusing as was the exhibi- 
tion made by the gentleman on that occasion, I doubt whether any other 
member of the House would not have found it as difficult to define the 
distinctions between Whigs and Democrats, as national parties, at this 
time. The truth is, Mr. Chairman, that the old issues, which formerly 
divided these two parties, have now disappeared, and for want of the old 
landmarks, the lines of division are scarcely perceptible. (Mr. McLane 
said, that they still existed in his opinion.) 

Then, sir, it is very extraordinary that the gentleman on yesterday 
was not able to point them out. Though cross-examined by several 
members, and worried for a quarter of an hour, he was not able to lay 
hold of any one of these old landmarks. They must have been buried 
very deeply under ground to escape detection by optics as keen as his. 
There can be no douV)t, Mr. Chairman, that the Whig and Democratic 
parties, once essentially divided as to measures, have now become mere 
factions. By factious, I mean as contra-distinguished from parties, to 
designate bodies of men, not separated by well-defined principles, but 
only by political animosity, or because struggling against each other for 
office. Such associations are usually' the most mischevious. Wanting 
the disinterestedness and purity, which a struggle for principle is apt to 
engender, they soon become utterly selfish, and tend to political corrup- 
tion. I have no objection, therefore, to see new party combinations 
formed, as the government of the country is likely thereby to be in a 
better rather than in a worse position. Though I did not co-operate in 
the late attempt to form the so-called Union party, yet I had no objec- 
tion to the movement. I saw at once that a party could not stand upon 
a single mere negative idea, and that before it could progress it would 
have to adopt positive principles to regulate its general action. If those 
principles, when promulgated, had, contrary to my anticipations, ac- 
corded with my views of what is sound policy, better than the principles 
of the antagonist party, then I should not have hesitated to co-operate 
with them. I say now, Mr. Chairman, that if the old Republican party 
of the days of Jefierson and Madison, that party which was broken to 



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])ieces in 1825, by reason of its having nominally five presidential can- 
didates in the field — if that party could be called together, upon its old 
principles, I would ratlier march under its flag than that of any other 
likely to be found. I know that its name has sometimes been brought 
into disrepute, because many professing the name have, in practice, apos- 
tatized from its princij)les, while others have incurred ridicule by their 
misapplication of those princij>les. True religion has been brought into 
disrepute by the hypocrisy of its professors, and good coin is sometimes 
discredited by counterfeits. 

The principles of this old party, regardful of the rights of the States, 
strictly defining the powers of the Federal government, and limiting as 
much as possible the lines of its action, are those only on wliich our sys- 
tem can permanently stand. In the part of the Union from which I 
come, the great body of men of all classes, have originally belonged to 
or professed the princij^les of that party. Many even of the old fed- 
eralists having seen the mischief of a different line of policy would be 
I'eady to embrace its principles. As for myself, sir, I shall at all times 
be ready to sustain whatever measm'cs sound policy, and the permanent 
interests of the country shall in my judgment require, without regard 
to the parties or individuals with whom I may for the time be placed. A 
public man here can find no compensation for his surrender of the right 
of private judgment, and independence of action on all practical issues of 
moment. In conclusion, I have to say that I think the present revenue 
system ought to be reviewed, and modified iji yome respects. The frauds 
in the collection of duties complained of should be remedied as far as 
practicable ; but those who are making most clamor are doing it with a 
view of deceiving the country, as to their real object, which is to foist on 
it a tariff enormously high. I am ready myself now to vote for a specific 
duty on bar iron, for example, but I will not vote as the gentleman from 
Ohio prop6sed last session, to make it $20 per ton, or even tD increase it 
generally. Everybody knows that the higher the rate of duty the greater 
the temptation to evade it by fraudulent devices. If there were time, which 
there is not, at the present session, I should be willing to review the 
whole systeua. Some of the duties are too high. Others possibly ought 
to be increased. The mode of assessing many of them ought unqes- 
tionably to be changed. While I would be willing for the sake of revenue 
to see an imposition on everything that is imported, I say now, that if 
any one article ought to be made absolutely free of duty, I know none 
having stbnger claims to the exemption than railroad iron. 

The navigation laws too need essential modification. Wh}' should not 
the agriculturist, when he has conveyed his produce to the sea-side, not 
have the privilege of sending it off in the vessel that will carry it cheap- 
est. By extending the reciprocity system lately adopted with Great 
Britain, (but limited to the forgeign commerce) to the coast-wise trade 
the enormous rates of freight between our Southern and Northern ports 
would be greatly reduced. Our farmers and citizens generally, would 
be gainers thereby. JSTor do I think that our shipping interests would 
materially suffer. The adoption of the reciprocity system in the foreign 
trade has not injured us at all. Its extension with proper qualifica- 
tions ought not to be objected to. Our ship owners would doubtless 
sustain themselves, though their freight would be less than under the 



(287) 

present monopoly. Let the question of Canadian reciprocity and the 
free navigation of tlie St. Lawrence be considered, in connection with 
these things. They are perhaps right in themselves, but I should prefer 
that the system should be re-examined as a whole at the same time. 

With reference to the bill now under consideration, I have little to 
say. The strongest objection to the system of internal improvement is 
its liability to gross alnise, by reason of its partial tendencies, as well as 
the dishonest political combinations to which it is apt to give rise. For 
some of the items in this bill I can readily vote. The Mississippi river 
is a proper subject for expenditure. So is the opening of the inlet to 
Albemarle sound, whicli ni}^ colleagne [Mr. Outlaw] has so much at 
heart. The same may doubtless be said as to some of the other appro- 
priations for woi'ks on the sea coasts and on the lakes. My vote, there- 
Fore, on this l)i]l, will be guided by the precise form it may ultimately 
assume; but the inclination of my mind is strongly against the system. 
I doubt whetiier itwill not always be so managed as to be productive of 
mischief rather than benefits. 

NOTE. 

After the compromise measures of the preceding session, there had been some 
excitement in respect to them. Mr. Seward, and such men as shared his views, 
attempted to create a feeling against them in the North, but with little success, as 
it was evident that on the great territorial issue, tlie Northern States had nothing 
to complain of. Over the amendment to the Fugitive Slave Lav/, the abolitionists 
raised a clamoui', and committed some violations of the lavv', but no considerable 
opposition could be created to the system of measures as a whole. 

Their friends attempted to avail themselves of the general satisfaction in the 
country on account of a settlement having been mafle, to form a new party, called 
an "Union Party.'' Resolutions were presented in the House endorsing the meas- 
ures, and condemning agitation against them, &c. A paper was also prepared and 
signed by many gentlemen, proposing the formation of the new party. 

The very foundation on which that party was to rest, and the character of those 
who would have led it, made it evident that it would be a party of centralization, 
consolidation, regardless of all constitutional limitations, and a mere organization 
to promote monopolies, public pluiider through tariffs, wasteful expenditures, and 
the oppression of the agriculttiral interests of the country. T hoped, however, that 
the movement might become strong enough to destroy the two existing organiza- 
tions, so that the party opposed to this movement, which I felt confident could be 
made the strongest, might adopt the name of the old Jeffersonian Republican party, 
and by planting itself firmly on its principles govern the country in accordance with 
the Constitution. 

My efforts, in private conversation, to induce the Democrats to adopt the name of 
"Democratic Republican" party, met with much favor with many Southern mem- 
bers, but those from the North said that the term "Democrat" was so attractive 
to the foreigners, especially the Germans, that the change would be more likely 
to weaken, than strengthen the party. Had the change then been made our adver- 
saries would not afterwards, as they did, have been able to avail themselves of the 



(288) 

popular name of "Republican," for their anti-slavery organization, thus verifying 
JeflFerson's prediction. 

It seemed then clear to my mind that the old Whig party had already received a 
wound which would prove mortal. The facts sustaining this view will be more 
appropriately presented, when we are considering the incidents of the Presidential 
campaign of the year 1853. 

To encou/age public men to stand firmly by their convictions, this circumstance 
may properly be mentioned. In the Presidential contest of 1848, my Congressional 
District had with my concurrence given General Taylor three fourths of the votes 
cast, and I had been elected to the first Congress of his administration without 
opposition. And yet, though I opposed the leading measures of his administration, 
and though the compromise measures had at first been received with almost univer- 
sal approval, and though I had in the next canvass, an able and eloquent opponent, 
nevertheless, I was re-elected by a majority relatively nearly as large as General Tay- 
lor's had been. This would scarcely have occurred if I had not always offered myself 
as an independent candidate, and tends to show that where oTie announces that he 
will be governed in his action by the convictions of his judgment, and appeals 
directly to the people, they will in a proper case sustain him. On the other hand a 
man selected by a party convention, would be rejected next time by the political 
managers, or repudiated by the voters who had originally elected him. 



SPEECH 

ON DUTIES ON RAILROAD IRON AND COMMERCIAL RESTRIC- 
TIONS, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
AUGUST 21, 1852. 

Mr. Chairman: I avail myself of this occasion to say something 
with reference to the subject of the duties on railroad iron. The bill 
for the relief of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad lias just been defeated 
by a vote of the House. As that measure was under the operation of 
the previous question originally, and as the motion to lay on the table 
the question of reconsideration was not debatable, I • was precluded 
from saying any thing in its favor. Though it has been thus rejected, 
there is still a bill pending for the repeal of the duties on all railroad 
iron, which, if passed, would be more advantageous even to that road 
than would have been the bill just defeated. I am the more desirous 
of offering some observations to the committee, because of the course 
of the friends of higher duties, as we have witnessed it again and again 
during the present session. We have seen several attempts to put in 
the appropriation bills, clauses increasing largely the present taxes, 
for the sake of protection. These motions have been made, too, after 
the debate was stopped, and at a time when no discussion could be 
had in the committee. They are thus endeavoring clandestinely to 
foist on the country a much higher tariff than the people would know- 



( 289 ) 

ingly submit to. This mode of proceeding is by no means creditable 
to the cause. In former times, having doubtless confidence in the 
soundness of the system, the friends of high duties introduced 
their tariff bills in the usual mode of legislation, so as to permit a 
fair discussion and investigation as to the merits of the meas- 
ure. Of late the contrary practice has been adopted, and it is 
fair to presume that gentlemen have despaired of success in a 
fair contest, and are endeavoring, by some device or sudden 
stratagem, to get some oppressive act fastened on the country. As 
we are given to understand that, in despite of the late failures, a new 
attempt is yet to be made to get in a clause of the kind to some one of 
the unfinished appropriation bills, I avail myself of this, the only 
occasion, to expose such a system of tactics. 

When at an earlier period of the session the bill for the benefit of 
the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad was under consideration, there was 
the best prospect for its passage, the majority for it being large on all 
the preliminary votes. To-day, however, it has been finally defeated. 
Why this change ? Because of an adverse influence which has been 
brought actively into the field. There is a certain iron interest in the 
country — a sort of fourth department of the government — which claims 
the right to control our legislation. Not content with their represen- 
tation on this floor, they send regularly, at each session, bodies of dele- 
gates who fill our lobbies, with a view of influencing our action. 
They are often too successful in misleading such members as have not 
thoroughly examined the subject, and compared their contradictory 
and conflicting statements from year to year. When they find that 
their statement of facts does not answer the purpose, but can be suc- 
cessfully used against them, they afe in the habit of shifting it, and 
coming up with a new one of a contradictory character. It is only, 
therefore, by comparing these different statements, through a series of 
years, that we can hope to understand the true state of the case. 

Seeing, during the earlier part of the session, that there was a pros- 
pect of the country being relieved from an unnecessary tax on railroad 
iron, they have sent on an unusually strong representation. Having 
for a great many years, been accustomed to have taxes imposed on the 
rest of the community for their benefit, they have at length grown so 
insolent as to insist, not only that these taxes shall be paid perpet- 
ually, whether the government needs the money or not, but that they 
shall be paid in cash, without one moment's delay. 

For example, this Raleigh and Gaston Company having purchased 
in England iron to lay down on their road, are obliged by the existing 
tariff law, to pay to the government $70,000 or $80,000 as a duty or 
tax, before they are allowed to bring their iron into the country. 
Being pressed in their means, they asked that, instead of a payment 
in cash, they should be permitted to give bonds, with good security, 
to pay this duty in one, two, three, and four years. They also pro- 
posed that the government should retain the money which it is to 
pay them for carrying the mail on their road. This would be suffi- 
cient, too, to pay off the debt as it falls due. 
37 



(290) 

It is also admitted that the government does not need the money, 
as there will be, according to the report of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury, a surplus at the close of the present fiscal year, of about $20,000,- 
000. In this state of facts, though the government will in nowise be 
injured by granting the indulgence, we find these iron representatives 
making a most strenuous resistance, which in the end is successful in 
defeating the bill. They do not pretend either that they could have 
furnished, on any reasonable terms, iron to this company. On the 
contrary, it has been expressly admitted by Representatives from 
Pennsylvania on this floor, that in that State the railroads going up 
to their own works, were laid down with foreign iron. They them- 
selves, when making roads, find it cheaper to purshase iron in Eng- 
land, pay the expense of getting it home, and the duty of thirty per 
cent, on its value, rather than use their own domestic iron. They 
have, nevertheless, on the present occasion, been instrumental in 
defeating by a bare majority of one vote, this bill for the temporary 
relief of one of our companies, in which the State of North Carolina is 
interested, to the extent of one-half. 

Part of their opposition is doubtless due to the circumstance adverted 
to sometime since in debate, by the gentleman from Vermont, (Mr. 
Meachara) who denounced the last Legislature of North Carolina, 
because it had passed, by a unanimous vote, resolutions against any 
additional protection to the manufacturing and mining interests of 
the North. Under the influence of this feeling, in part, but mainly 
because members have been misled by the statements of this Penn- 
sylvania iron delegation, the bill I refer to has been defeated, and 
opposition strengthened against a repeal of the duties on railroad iron. 
Had gentlemen been more familiar with the subject, no such effect 
could have been produced. 

Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, (interrupting.) All I have to say is, 
that so far from operating against these railroad bills, that delegation 
of which the gentleman speaks, unfortunately, and by what I deem. 
an unwise contract, passed through this House, or made its friends 
pass, a bill giving 3,000,000 acres of land to the Missouri railroad; 
and v/ithout the aid of those outsiders, it had no chance. 

Mr. Clingman, (resuming.) It is very likely, Mr. Chairman, that 
that delegation did succeed in passing the Missouri railroad bill; but 
it was a mere mistake which they made. 

Their object was, by an improper bargain, to get the votes of Western 
men to impose fresh taxes on the countr}^ for the benefit of the iron 
interest, and they no doubt pushed through the Missouri bill expecting 
to get a return. They did not get it, however, and I am glad they 
did fail. I trust, sir, that all such attempts will bring nothing but 
disappointment and mortification on the actors. When there is any 
combination to plunder the public, I hope that the parties to it will 
always fail to obtain any benefit, and that the Western members will 
stand out all the time against the bids of this interest. It is notorious 
to all of us who have been here for the last three years, that this iron 
interest is constantly off'ering support to Western measures, upon con- 



( 291 ) 

dition that the Representatives from that section will join them in 
imposing additional taxes on the community. 

Before, however, Mr. Chairman, speaking directly to this question 
of the duties on railroad iron, I wish to notice some of the general 
positions of the gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Stevens) and the 
gentleman from Vermont, (Mr. Meacham.) I attempted at the time 
when their speeches were delivered to reply to each of them, but was 
not so fortunate in the general struggle as to obtain the floor. There 
was one striking difference in the style of argumentation of the two 
gentlemen. The gentleman from Vermont indulged in some state- 
ments of facts, and gave us arrays of figures. But the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, being an old soldier in the cause, was too sagacious to 
venture on such ground. He knows that facts are stubborn things, 
that will not get out of anybody's way, and that figures, when fairly 
used, often prove too much. He has seen how, at former sessions, the 
array of facts and figures, presented by the iron conventions, were 
successfully used against their views. He has therefore avoided 
making specific points, and contented himself with certain generalties 
and sterreotyped arguments in favor of protection and encouragement 
to American labor, &c. The gentleman has no doubt made many a 
good stump speech in Lancaster with these materials. Everybody is 
in favor of protection^ but who is fond of taxation f Is what the 
gentleman asks simply protection, or is it taxation, and unnecessary 
taxation at that? This is the point to be settled. One of the posi- 
tions taken by the gentleman from Vermont, will enable us to illus- 
trate this point clearly. That gentleman insisted that in consequence 
of the reduction of the duties by the present tariff, below what they 
were under the act of 1842, the North had been a great loser. He 
argued that it had lost much more than the South, by reason of the 
escape of its fugitive slaves. He insisted, with the utmost vehemence, 
that Southern men were very inconsistent in demanding a law for the 
return of fugitive slaves, ancl yet not agreeing to give additional duties 
to the manufacturers. It is, sir, undoubtedly true that Southern men 
have lost slaves to a considerable extent, by reason of their escape into 
the free States. 

But how is it with Northern property? Have any of the manufac- 
turing establishments been destroyed or seized by anybody? Or have 
the fabrics made by them been taken away? This is not pretended, 
and even if it were likely to be done, the whole military force of the 
country would at once be called out to protect them. It must be 
admitted by everybody that they are fully and thoroughly protected. 
What is it, then really, that the gentleman asked? Why, that we 
shall impose high duties or taxes on all who bring in foreign fabrics 
to sell, so that the manufacturers may get higher prices for what they 
make than is fair, according to the market prices of the world. This 
is really what he asks. To make the cases parallel, therefore, suppose 
that Congress had passed a fugitive slave law so efficient that not a 
single slave was ever lost, and that then I should make a loud com- 
plaint here, and insist that our slave property needed protection, and 
when called upon to explain, should say that I wished Congress to 



( 292 ) 

pass a law imposing a tax of fifty per cent, or more on the sale of all 
productions made by free labor, so that we might thus get a higher 
price for what the slaves made. This would be exactly such a case as 
the gentleman makes. And if Congress should agree to impose a tax 
of thirty per cent, on the productions of free labor to gratify my impor- 
tunity, and enable slave-holders to make larger profits, I might still 
complain just as he does, and say, that because they did not impose a 
duty of fifty per cent., we had lost the difference between that sum and 
thirty per cent. This comparison, I think illustrates the real position 
of the gentleman. He has, as far as the manufacturing interest is 
concerned, no better ground of complaint than an individual would 
have, to whom we last year voted a pension of $2,000, if we should 
now give him but $1,000. He might with as much reason complain 
that we had injured him to the extent of $1,000, because we did not 
again give him twice that sum. But if the gentleman really considers 
the present duty of thirty per cent, on railroad iron injurious, I am 
willing to take it off. 

Again, Mr. Chairman, to make the case clearer, if possible, it is 
sometimes said in Congress, and more frequently in stump speeches, 
thai the tarifl:' is only a fence which Brother Jonathan has made to 
keep John Bull from injuring his property. It is certainly necessary 
in our country to the success of farming operations, that the crops 
should be protected by fences. But suppose, sir, that a man whose 
field was already surrounded by a good fence, should insist on having 
a law passed that no person should be allowed to sell corn, without 
paying a tax of fifty cents on each bushel, unless that corn had been 
made in his field. If he could get such a law passed, it might 
undoubtedly enable him to get fifty cents more for each bushel of his 
corn than the market price would otherwise enable him to do, and 
would of course make it that much worse on all corn bu3'ers; but 
would it not seem strange if the community were told that this law 
was a mere fence to protect his crop from damage? It is idle for gen- 
tlemen to say that the duties do not increase the price, and are not 
intended to do so. If they lowered the market value of the articles, 
the manufacturers would be injured by getting less for what they make. 
This nobody pretends; on the contrary, they can only be profited by 
the enhancement of prices. 

To prevent misconception, I declare, sir, that I am willing, and I 
believe the community are willing, to bear all the taxation that is 
really necessary to sustain the government. The country has also 
consented that during the infancy of our manufactures they should 
be highly protected. From the war of 1812, a period of forty years, 
these infants have been well protected, and are even now enjoying the 
advantage of thirty per cent, duties. Being now forty years of age, 
can they not do with less? Why, our present tariff would be regarded 
as a very high one in any country in Europe. Not long since the new 
British minister. Lord Derby, a high protectionist, said in debate, that 
the British Parliament ought to follow the example of the United 
States, and adopt a high tariff like ours. Their duties, it is well known, 
since the reduction made five years ago, are not generally higher than 



I 293) 



ten per (3ent. As, however, a majority of the members of Parliament 
are on this question known to be opposed to the Minister, and in fact 
for free trade, there is no probability of their going back to the old 
system of high protection, and tlierefore there is the less reason for 
any increase of duty on our part. 

I now, Mr. Chairman, ask the attention of the committee to the con- 
sideration of the immediate question, which I propose to discuss. 

It must be remembered that prior to the year 1842, there had never 
been an}' duty laid on the importation of railroad iron. It was during 
this period, while this kind of iron was free of duty, that the Northern 
and several of the Southern Atlantic States went into the system of 
internal improvements, by making railroads. They completed some 
of their most important works, and obtained a fair start. This is a 
matter of the greatest consequence; for gentlemen will everywhere 
find that as soon as one or two roads are in successful operation in a 
State, it is easy to go on by fresh additions to the system. The main 
difficulty is in the start. It seems, hard, therefore, that while the 
older States in the beginning obtained their iron without any duty, 
that similar indulgence should not be extended to the new. 

By the act of 1842, a duty of $25 per ton was imposed on all rolled 
iron. Notwithstanding this enormous duty, there was not, for some 
years, any attempt to make railroad iron in the United States. In 
1846, the price having risen in England to some $50 per ton, the addi- 
tion of this duty, together with other costs and charges incident to the 
importation, made railroad bar worth here from $80 to $90 per ton. 
A few establishments went into the business of manufacturing the 
article. There were seven or eight in Pennsylvania, and four or five 
in the rest of the United States. The reduction of duty and price, 
which soon followed the act of 1846, in a few years, caused most of these 
establishments to abandon that branch of business. I cannot ascertain, 
after diligent inquiry by letter, and also of the committee of iron- 
masters who have been here during the session, that more than three 
establishments have continued to make railroad bar. Their whole 
production is not supposed to exceed some thirty thousand tons. 

I hold in my hand, sir, a statement of prices of merchant bar at 
Liverpool during a run of ten years, which was furnished me by these 
gentlemen during their sojourn here. I will read the average price 
for each year, beginning with 1843, the first year of the operation of 
our tariff of 1842, as follows: 



1843. 
1844 
1845 
1846 

1847. 



£ s. d. £ s. d. 

4 16 3 1848 6 11 3 

5 10 1849 5 18 9 

8 5 1850 5 5 

8 17 6 1851 5 26 

8 12 6 1852, February & March. 4 15 



It will be seen, sir, that this statement, furnished by themselves, sin- 
gularly refutes, as far as facts go, their theories. They said that the 
tariff of 1842, though it might make iron higher at first, would in a 



( 294 } 

few years reduce it; but in point of fact the article continued to rise 
regularly each year, from 1843 to 1846. 

When the act of that year reduced the duty, these gentlemen told us 
that there would probably be a sudden fall, and that in a little time 
the article would be higher than ever. But the reverse was the fact ; 
the fall for the first year being a slight one, but increasing from year 
to year; regularly foiling until the beginning of the present year, as 
far as their table goes, it including nothing after the month of March, 
At that time, according to this very statement, bar iron at Liver- 
pool was worth, including shipping charges, only £4 17s. 6d. or $21.66 
reduced to our currency. It thus appears that these facts, with most 
obstinate perverseness, refuse to conform to the theories of the gentle- 
men. 

There has, however, been within the last two months a considerable 
rise at Liverpool in the price of bar iron. This may be only tempo- 
rary, as, according to the same statement I have read from, it occurred 
frequently within the last few years that there would be a variance 
within three months of more than ten dollars per ton, sometimes. It 
was for that reason that I have read the average statement of all the 
months in each year as given. 

It may be, however, that the great demand for railroad iron has 
affected the price. The prospect of a continued peace in Europe has 
stimulated the construction of railroads there, in addition to the great 
demand here, and, perhaps, we may see the article rather higher for 
.some time to come. It is often alleged, however by the friends of high 
duties, that this reduction has been purposely made by a combination 
of the iron-masters in England, to break down our establishments, so 
that they may, in the end, get a monopoly, and hereafter raise the 
price. Is this probable? In a statement in the memorial of the iron- 
ma.sters of Pennsylvania, published by order of their convention, at 
Philadelphia, in December, 1849, it appears that the product of Great 
Britain was then as much as two millions of tons. It has since 
increased to nearly three millions of tons, according to statements 
which I rely on as substantially accurate. But from the report of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, at the present session, we have, on page fifty- 
four, that the average foreign value of all the iron imported into the 
United States, in the latter part of the year 1846, was $48 per ton. In 
the early part of the present year it was worth only $21.66. If, there- 
fore, we take the difference in price per ton, and multiply it by the 
whole number of tons produced in Great Britain, we shall find, by 
letting the price fall in this way, the iron men in that country have 
actually lost about $70,000,000 in a single year. And for what reason 
is it that they consent to lose at this rate for a half-dozen years in suc- 
cession ? Why, merely, we are told, to enable them to break down 
these three iron establishments in Pennsylvania, which are making 
only thirty thousand tons per year. It would be far better for them 
to spend one or two millions, if necessary, in buying those works from 
the owners, and then having them to stand idle. Sir, the argument, 
often as it may be repeated, is preposterously absurd. The Sultan of 
Turkey might, with as much reason, assert that the cotton growers of 



( 295 ) 

the United States had, by combination among themselves, reduced the 
price of cotton to break down his experimental cotton farm on the 
banks of the Bosphorus, began under tlie direction of our countryman^ 
Dr. Davis. I admit, sir, that all production of iron, whether made in 
this country or out of it, tends to lower the price. It is also undoubt- 
edly true, that if we should pour a barrel of water into the Potomac, 
that there would, by consequence, be more water in the Chesapeake 
Bay. 

But manufacturers have candidly stated that they cannot make iron 
at the present rates, and that, unless we give them increased protec- 
tion they must give up the business. That is really the question wdiich 
they submit to us. I appeal to gentlemen all around to say whether 
there is any sufficient reason to justify this demand? Ought we to 
increase the present tax of thirty per cent., now op[)ressive on all parts 
of the country, just to enable a few establishments to make more money 
than they can now do? Have they any right to expect that we should 
do it? In this pamphlet to which I have already referred, they have 
given us a minute statement of the cost of making iron in Pennsylva- 
nia. All the items they set dovvuras making a sum total of |49 per ton 
at the works. They then state that it costs $4.75 to get into the market 
— making $53 75 — and show, that when it is sold at $55 per ton, the 
manufacturer's profit is only $1.25. But we have it in their own pub- 
lished statement, which I now exhibit, that iron can be purchased in 
Liverpool at $21.66, and that, after paying all the charges incident to 
importation, it can be had here for $27.74, if free of duty. If, there- 
fore, there were no duty on the article, the American purchaser could 
get it for $27.26 less than they ask, or about one-half only of the price 
which they told us two years ago they were obliged to have. To ena- 
ble, therefore, the manufacturer to realize $1.25 per ton, you must 
make the purchaser lose $27.26. Is it fair thus to treat one class of our 
citizens for the sake of another? Are not the farmers who are inter- 
ested in the making of railroads, just as worthy, and in all respects as 
meritorious as the manufacturers? 

But these gentlemen say that their iron furnaces give employment 
to laborers. Undoubtedly they do; but so does a railroad, and it is 
easy to show by calculation, as I did at the last session, that the making 
of a railroad gives employment to a much larger number of persons 
than does the furnace which merely makes the iron. They say, fur- 
ther, that these establishments afford a market to the farmers. This 
is true, as to those living in the neighborhood of the works; but my 
constituents, or the people of Illinois and Missouri, can no more pay 
for iron in Pennsylvania with their produce than they can in England. 
In either case they would be compelled to make the payment in cash, 
and, therefore, should seek the cheapest market. Besides, sir, the rail- 
road, when made, will carry their produce to the markets of the world, 
and not to a single establishment that would be easily glutted. The 
benefit from this protection is small, and confined to a few; but the 
burden is large and diffused over the whole community. 

I now, Mr. Chairman, ask the attention of the gentleman from Penn- 
sylvania (Mr. Stevens) to the real cause of the difficulty under which 



( 296 ) 

his people have suffered. The complaint there is owing to the exces- 
sive degree of protection heretofore given. Under the stimulus of the 
extravagantly high duty of the tariff of 1842, there was too great a rush 
of capital to the iron business, because in the most favorable localities 
enormous profits could be made. So much capital went into the busi- 
ness, that all the spare labor in that part of the country was at once 
absorbed by that occupation, and the competition among the iron- 
masters caused a great rise in the wages of laborers, and has produced 
a condition of things which cannot be permanently kept up. Since I 
presented this solution of the difEculty in the last Congress, I have 
some additional evidence to support the view. From the census 
returns, which have been published for the first time daring the 
present session, I find that while the average rate of wages for male 
laborers in the iron factories of Pennsylvania is onj dollar and six 
cents, in North Carolina it is only thirty-nine cents, and in Georgia it 
is only forty-three cents. Why this difference? What has produced 
such a condition of things? Clearly it is owing to the fact, that in 
those favorable localities in Pennsylvania the business was overdone, 
and more labor being required than could be had at the usual rates, 
wages rose thus high. I may be asked, however, if this is not a desi- 
rable thing. I need hardly sa}- that I should be much gratified to see 
not only the iron manufacturers of Penn.sylvania, but all the other 
laborers there, whether farmers or mechanics, and throughout the 
entire Union, receive not only one dollar, but ten or twenty a day. 
But this state of things cannot possibly be. As you can only raise 
prices partially and by legislation, the question is, whether it is right 
to impose a tax on those of our citizens who are getting but forty cents 
per day, to give others more than one dollar? Why oppress North 
Carolina and Georgia for the sake of helping Pennsylvania? 

Mr. Brooks. Do not the laborers in the iron establishments in 
North Carolina receive as high compensation as those in Pennsylvania? 

Mr. Clingman. I am glad the gentleman has asked me that ques- 
tion. I beg him again to look at this statement which I have read, 
and he will find that by the census returns which have been published, 
that the average price of labor in all the iron establishments in North 
Carolina is set down at thirty-nine cents; the average in the iron 
establishments in Georgia forty-three cents, and that of Pennsylvania 
one doHar and six cents. Now, if you will look at the price of hibor in 
the co'.ton factories in Pennsylvania, according to the census returns, 
it is only sixty-five cents. Tliere is a difference between the prices of 
labor in the cotton and iron manufactories of from sixty-five cents to 
one dollar and six cents. 

Mr. Moore, of Pennsylvania. If the gentleman will allow me, I 
will ask him whether he alludes, when he speaks of the price of labor 
in the cotton manufactories, to male or female labor? 

Mr. Clingman. I allude to male labor only. 

Mr. McNair. Is board included in this statement? 

Mr. Clingman. The statement before me gives the rate of wages in 
all the States alike, without discrimination, and of course either board 



( 297 ) 

is included for all or noue in the comparative estimate of the census 
tables. 

Mr. McNair. The price of board itself is eighty-seven and a half 
cents a day. 

Mr. Clingman. Then the price of board must of course be included 
in the statement. My object is to shovv the difference in the rate of 
wages paid to the laborers in the cotton and iron manufactories in 
Pennsylvania. The average rates, as I said, is sixty-five cents a day 
for one, and one dollar and six cents for the other. 

Mr. Moore, of Pennsylvania. In the cotton manufactories there are 
a great many minors. Does the gentleman include them in his esti- 
mate, or does he only refer to the labor of men? 

Mr. Clingman. However that may be, the gentleman will see that 
it will not help him out of the difficulty. When I come down to 
North Carolina, I find that the price of labor in the cotton factories 
averages forty-four cents per day, which is five cents higher than that 
paid to those in the iron establishments there; and we employ boys in 
our cotton manufactories as well as you do in Pennsylvania. In 
Georgia the price of labor in the cotton manufactories is fifty-five cents 
per day, which is twelve cents higher than in the iron establishments 
of that State, also ; so the gentleman will see that the fact that minors 
and boys are employed in the manufactories of Pennsylvania does not 
help him out of the difficulty. 

But my explanation is the true one of the cause of the difference of 
forty cents per day between the rate of wages in the cotton and iron 
establishments in Pennsylvania. The government, as I said, by the 
duty imposed upon iron in the tariff of 1842, rendered the manufac- 
ture of iron so profitable that all the labor of the country was absorbed 
by the iron manufacturers, and such was the competition that the 
price of labor rose to the enormous rate of one dollar and six cents 
per day, while tiie labor in the cotton manufactories remained at sixty- 
five cents. This fact illustrates the principle which I am endeavoring 
to maintain. Pennsylvania is suffering from excessive protection. At 
these particular localities where these iron establishments were located, 
the business became so profitable as to raise the price of labor to that 
degree, that now that iron has fallen they cannot afford to make it on 
the same terms; while if the duty imposed had been onl}' a moderate 
one, so many would not have gone into the business, and there would 
have been a steady advance. 

What you want is a moderate check upon the system. I will make 
a few remarks upon a very singular statement of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, w^hich I have no doubt gentlemen have seen incorporated in 
Mr. Corwin's report, as it is germane to this subject. But before I pro- 
ceed to that matter, let me say that the price of labor in the manufac- 
-turing establishments of North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, no 
doubt indicates the rate of wages among the farmers; for if the farm- 
ers paid any higher rate, of course these people in the manufacturing 
establishments would not work for less. If this is true, the farmers of the 
South and West, and I have no doubt that the same is true in other 
States, are not realizing more than forty or fifty cents a day, and yet 
38 



(298) 

gentlemen are clamorous in asking us to impose a tax upon these 
people who receive but forty or fifty cents a day, to enable others to 
get more than a dollar and six cents a day. 

Mr. McNair, (interrupting.) I will say to the gentlemen that many 
of those who are employed in the iron works, have to spend many 
years in learning the art of manufacturing, and then they receive high 
wages, and that makes a very great difference. 

Mr. Clingman. If the gentleman had attended to my remarks and 
referred to the census, he would have found that the average rate of 
wages included all the laborers, whether they receive high or low 
prices. 

But how, Mr. Chairman, is it with the farmers ? I am amused 
sometimes by gentlemen getting up upon this floor, as I was amused 
when I saw an article in the National Intelligencer to the same effect, 
complaining most bitterly of a tax of five per cent, upon madder, dye- 
stuffs, and other articles which tlie manufacturers consume. The 
manufacturers say it is great outrage to impose a tax of five per cent, 
upon what they use, but upon what the farmers use, they say thirty 
per cent, is not enough. The laboring farmers of the country are real- 
izing but forty or fifty cents a day for their work, and the real ques- 
tion now is, whether j^ou will impose a further tax upon them to ena- 
ble these other people to make a dollar and a quarter. They say to 
the farmers who may complain, that the duty makes things cheaper. 
Then why do they not submit to it themselves ? It is because they do 
not themselves believe in the argument; else why complain of the five 
per cent, tax on copper and fifty other things which they find occas- 
ion to use, and which are, to some extent, produced already in this 
country, and can be without limit. No, sir; their wish is to be exempt 
themselves from all share in supporting the government, and that ail 
others may be taxed for their benefit. They have been so much 
petted, that they have been quite spoiled. Most of our tariffs have 
been made entirely to suit their wishes. The farmers and their repre- 
sentatives here, I am sorry to say, have looked too little into the 
details of the systems, and have permitted the manufacturers to have 
everything their own way. It is high time that there was a nearer 
approach to equality and justice. 

But I wish, Mr. Chairman, to advert to an argument which has 
been put forward again and again; and I ask the attention of my 
friend from Tennessee, over the way, (Mr. Jones,) and others. These 
gentlemen say you you are proposing to benefit corporations, but you 
will do nothing for the farmer; that \ou propose to take a duty off of 
railroad iron, but you do not touch plow iron. Now, I should like to 
show gentlemen, how little there is in this objection. These gentle- 
men have not surely looked into the statement of the Secretary of the 
Treasury. From the last report (page 83) it appears that there were 
254,000 tons of bar iron, manufactured by rolling, imported for the 
year 1851. Most of this was ^-ailroad iron. From another statement, 
furnished during the present session to my colleague, (Mr. Morehead,) 
by the Secretary of the Treasury, it appears that the exact amount of 
railroad iron imported for the year, was 190,199 tons. But all the 



(299) 

other kinds of bar-iron, not manufactured by rolling, according to the 
same report, (page 84,) imported for the year 1851, amount to only 
20,198 tons. This includes the finer kind of Swede iron, as well as the 
plow iron imported. If it were all used b}^ the farmers, instead of 
only a small part of it, it would still be but little more than one-tenth 
of the railroad iron imported. How absurd, then, is it to say, that it 
is a matter of great importance to relieve the farmers from a tax on 
20,000 tons, but it is not worth while to remove a burden ten times as 
great. These gentlemen are extremely anxious to remove a mote from 
the eye of the public, but they are utterly indifferent about getting out 
the beam. 

But is it true, sir, in point of fact, that the capitalists are interested 
in the railroads mainly, and that farmers are not? I can speak from 
some 'observation upon the subject. In North Carolina we have a 
few roads, but not ss many as we ought to have, and would like to get 
more, and yet I find that'those roads have not been made by capital- 
ists. Moneyed men who want to make as much as possible, you will 
find invariably looking for more productive stocks. There is the Wil- 
mington railroad, the stock of which my colleague, (Mr. Ashe,) very 
well knows is not now worth more than seventy cents on the dollar, 
and yet the very men who took that stock, and lost money on it, have 
since taken stock in other roads. Why is it? When you propose to 
construct a road in North Carolina — and I have no doubt that the 
same is true in the Western and Southern States generally — every ftir- 
mer asks himself how much can he afford to lose for the sake of get- 
ting a public improvement; and after deciding that question, he takes 
as much stock as he can afford. So these roads are made by the far- 
mers and the poor of the country mainly. And when they are made 
in any manner whatever, they benefit all classes. They enable the 
farmers to get their produce to market — to the sea-side, where they 
have the markets of the world. Every man who travels is benefited, 
too — and almost every one has to travel to some extent. The manu- 
facturer is also as much benefited as any one else. He has the road 
to enable him to send his goods to the consumer in the country, and 
by the same facilit}^ he gets back his grain, and beef, and pork. 

Nor does the benefit stop here. When this produce comes to the 
sea-side, you find that the ship-owner, and the merchant, take it and 
carr}' it abroad, whereby commerce is vastly increased and extended. 
Every class of the community, and every branch of business is thus 
benefitted. 

Mr. Fuller, of Pennsylvania, (interrupting.) The gentleman has 
exhibited a very striking contrast between the rate of w^ages in the 
State of Pennsylvania, and the State of North Carolina, and has stated 
that the rate of wages in the iron establishments of Pennsylvania is 
$1 06 per da}^, and forty-three cents in the State of North Carolina. I 
wish to know of him if he considers $1 06 too high a rate of wages for 
a laboring man in any State of the Union? 

Mr. Clingman. I have answered that question, and I will answer 
it again. I told gentlemen that I would like to see these laboring 



( 800 ) 

people getting the highest wages. I hope the gentlemen will not 
interrupt me again, except with some new matter. 

Mr. Fuller. What kind of men are they in North Carolina, who 
work for forty cents a day ? 

Mr. Clingman. The object of the gentleman is only to occupy my 
time, as I have answered that question. 

I have said this : that when gentlemen propose to tax one man who 
is getting only forty cents a day, to enable another man to get more 
than $1 06, I am not for it. I should be very glad to have these 
men get $5 a day, or a much larger sum, but I am not willing to tax 
one set of men to give to another. 

As I was saying, everybody has been struck by the immense increase 
of our foreign tonnage in the last two or three years. Why is it? 
Because the imj)rovements of the country have carried a vast amount 
of its products which never before found their way there, to the sea- 
side, and they are now transported abroad. 

But we hear a great complaint made of British free trade. When 
listening to this clamor, people would suppose that Great Britain was 
robbing us of everything, especialh^ of our gold and silver, and that we 
were losing every year. 

I find, according to the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
in the commerce and navigation document for the last year, (page 46,) 
which any gentleman can read for himself, that Great Britain buys 
$124,000,000 worth of products a year from us, and sends us back only 
$105,000,000 of her produce, (page 270 of same document.) So that 
we actualh^ sell her $19,000,000 of property more than we take back 
from her, obliging her to make up this sum in specie to us. It is 
amusing to hear this great hue and cry against our commerce with 
Great Britain, w^hen it is known that she not only buys m'ore from us 
than all the world besides does, but $19,000,000 more than she sells 
tons. That is equivalent to $19,000,000 of specie upon our side. I 
should like to know if any one objects to that state of the case? 

If you stop this trade with Great Britain, the result will be that the 
$100,000,000 worth of cotton she now takes, and the rice, pork, tobacco, 
and the breadstuffs, &c., amounting to some $20,000,000 and upwards, 
all are to be kept at home to rot on our hands. Great Britain only 
gets our cotton and other things by paying more than anybody else, 
and she is the largest and best customer therefore we have, and our 
trade with her is much the most profitable we have with any Powder. 

I now wish to make a remark upon a singular statement contained 
in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, (page 54.) It is a table, 
from which it appears that in 1S48, w^e were consuming ninety-nine 
pounds of iron to each person, and that now we are consuming only 
sixty-nine pounds. This is a singular state of things if it be true. 
But what is the fact, and how does he get at it? Remember, in 1848, 
iron was worth nearl}^ $80 per ton, and it is now down to $30. Is it 
not very extraordinary, therefore, that when iron was dear, you con- 
sumed ninety-nine pounds, and when it fell down to a much lower 
price, you consumed only sixty-nine pounds. Now, if it were true, 
that under this system of legislation, our people were so impoverished 



(301) 

that they could not consume the amount of iron they wanted, it would 
be a great and important question. But how do you get at these 
facts? I will tell you. The amount imported in each year is easily 
ascertained, but the error is in computing the amount of domestic pro- 
duction. It appears from the census of 1840, that we manufactured 
in the United States 286,000 tons of iron. It appears also, from the 
census of 1850, that we manufactured 564,000 tons, which is doubling 
the amount in ten years. That is the only data we have to go upon 
that is at all authentic. But when some of the manufacturers of Penn- 
sylvania, a couple of years since, wanted to make a strong impression 
upon Congress, they got together and claimed upon the strength of 
estimates and conjecture merely that they did make 800,000 tons in 
the year 1848. This statement was gotten up expressly to induce Con- 
gress to give them further protection, they alleging that the manufac- 
ture of that article had fallen down to little or nothing then. Well, 
the Secretary of the Treasury has taken that statement made up in 
this way in December, 1840, at tlie instance of these iron manufactur- 
ers, and incorporated it into his report. If you take the census of 
1840, and the census of 1850, you have something reliable to go upon. 
Though the census may be inaccurate, yet it is, after all, more likely 
to be right than any other statement. Yet, the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury has taken that statement and incorporated it into his report upon 
mere conjecture, and at the instance of persons interested to make the 
difference between the two periods as great as possible. Is there the 
slightest reason to believe in this statement ? 

I appeal to the judgment of every gentletnan around me, are we not 
making more railroads in the United States now, than we ever have 
at any former time? Are we not making a larger number of ships? 
Both are great consumers of iron. Are we not constructing more 
steamboats and steamships, with their immense massive iron ma- 
chinery, than at any former period? Are we not using iron for houses, 
bridges, and in a thousand ways, and to a greater extent than form- 
erly? Are not our farming operations carried on with a greater 
consumption of iron than at any })revious time? 

I have no doubt, Mr. Chairman, that the people of the United States 
are consuming more iron now than at any earlier period of our 
existence. It is a strange, a most preposterous idea, that the}^ do not 
consume it, because it is so cheap; and 3'et this statement is thrown 
out and copied into the newspapers, and harped upon from time to 
time, without persons taking the trouble to look into it, or see its 
fallacy. 

But, Mr. Chairman, we are sometimes told that by submitting to a 
high price for a few years under protection, we shall in the end get 
the article cheaper. Even if this be conceded as a general principle, 
it cannot hold good as to railroad iron, if the iron -masters of Penn- 
sylvania are to be relied on as good authority. In this same pamphlet, 
printed by them, from which I have been reading, it is said, that in 
making iron, the labor amounts to nine-tenths of the whole cost of 
production. It is also shown by the table, on page forty-six, that the 
cost of American labor on a single ton is $11; and that the English 



(802) 

get the same done for $3.71. Taking, therefore, the raw material in 
this country to he worth about the same that it is in England, it 
being, too, but one-tenth part of the whole cost, it appears that a ton 
of bar-iron can be manufactured in that country for !^20, at a better 
profit to the maker than the same would afford here when sold for 
$50 per ton. Nor can this inequality ever be overcome, unless wages 
were correspondingly reduced in this country. This, I need hardly 
say, is not desired by those interested, and therefore there is no ground 
for us to hope that the burden they propose the nation should bear 
will be a mere temporary one. Conceding that the British have the 
advantage, however, in this particular manufacture, I am still of the 
opinion that those representing the iron interest have greatly exag- 
gerated the difference. This very committee of iron-masters, to whom 
I have already referred, told me, during the present session, that they 
were able to make iron in Pennsylvania now, at $10 per ton less than 
they did two] years ago. This, they said, was owing to improvements 
and economy, and not to any reduction of wages. This remarkable 
fact has occurred, too, not under a high tariff, but under what they 
call a low one. It reminds me of what has occurred in England, with 
reference to the silk manufacture. While that business was heavily 
protected by the government, it languished; but since the duties have 
been reduced, it is prosperous. 

These facts tend to show that it is necessary that people should rely 
on their own efforts for success. If the wagoner wishes Hercules to 
help him he must put his shoulder to the wheel. Even if all the 
duties were repealed, I have no doubt but that the iron manufacture 
would still go on, just as our farmers make corn at fifty, twenty-five, 
and even ten cents per bushel in some localities, because they cannot 
do better. Though they do not call upon us to tax others for their 
benefit, they have a right to insist that we shall not impose unneces- 
sary burdens on them, to aid others who are already better off. The 
gentleman from Pennsylvania, (Mr. Ross) whose able speech has ren- 
dered it unnecessary for me to touch many points of the subject, 
showed that the iron business in his State was in a highly ])rosperous 
condition, and that more iron works had been built since 1846, than 
in an equal period before it. The minute knowledge he evinced on 
this branch, will not, I trust, be lost on the House or the country. 

In the census table, furnished to us this session, it is stated that 
there is now in operation 10,814 miles of railroad. This will have to 
to be relaid from time to time. There are also in progress of con- 
struction 10,89G miles of railroad in the different States of the Union. 
The duties under the present tariff on the iron necessary to complete 
these roads will amount to more than $8,000,000, but "the Secretary 
of the Treasury estimates the surplus on hand at the close of the 
present fiscal year at some $20,000,000. Had we not better, therefore, 
repeal the duty, and thus enable all the States to finish their works? 
Penns3dvania herself, that is making several hundred miles of road 
which she is laying down with foreign iron, will be much more 
benefited as a State than injured by the measure. It will take half a 
million of dollars to pay the duty on the iron which will be required 



(303) 

on the roads in North Carolina, which we expect to have to purchase 
in the next eighteen months. The grading of the roads can be done 
by the farmers themselves, but the iron is a cash article, and wh}- 
should its price be so much raised by an unnecessary tax, as I have 
shown this to be? 

I admit, sir, that it is advantageous to a country that part of its labor 
should be employed in manufactures; but it must be such business as 
will sustain itself. It is clear that if any branch of manufactures is so 
unprofitable that it cannot support itself, but must be kept up by a tax on 
other more profitable occupations, it is a losing concern on the whole, 
and ought to be abandoned. All the countries referred to as having 
grown wealthier by reason of their manufactures, did so because they 
took care to engage in such kinds of business as they found convenient 
and profitable. England was referred to by the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania, (Mr. Stevens.) She, however, tried the system of 
restriction until her starving population could no longer bear it, and 
five years ago she was obliged to repeal her tariffs, and adopt a com- 
parative system of free trade. The consequence is that she is more 
prosperous than at any period of her existence. 

Let me present to the House some statements professing to come 
from official sources, and furnished by the London correspondent of 
the Xational Intelligencer. Nobody will suspect that paper of an 
undue bias towards the side of free trade. The article in question will 
be found in the paper of March 27, 1852. 

In the year 1S45, the year before the repeal of the corn laws, the 
importations into the United Kingdom of wheat and meal were 1,141,- 
957 quarters; and in 1851, the increase was no less than 5,355,687, or 
nearly five-fold. Remember, too, that the domestic production of these 
articles had increased, and ask yourself how vast the benefit conferred 
on the starving population of the country by this large increase of 
provisions consumed. Nine years ago, the consumption of sugar was 
4,068,331 cwt.; last year it had risen to 6,884,189 cwt., or an increase 
of sixty-nine per ceut. Not only are the people there able to pay for 
these articles which they consume, but all branches of manufacturing 
exhibit a proportionate increase, as is shown in the same article, as 
follows: 

Again: if we look at the items of mauufactures and exports, we shall find 
evidences of prosperity which are founded, we think, upon increased consump- 
tion of raw materials. Take the following brief tabular arrangement of the 
quantities of the leading varieties of raw materials, which passed through the 
hands of our manufacturers in the year 1842 and 1851, respectively: 

1842— lbs. 1851— lbs. 

Cotton 486,498,778 645,436,624 

Wool .^. . 44,022,141 69,346,893 

Raw silk ' . . 3,856,867 4,059,449 

The entire exports of the results of British industry, were, in 1842, £47, 381,- 
023; in 1851 they were £74,116,396; an increase within nine years of more 
than fifty per cent. 



(804) 

I might, by going further into detail, show still more clearly how 
much Great Britain has been benefitted by greater freedom of trade. 
Nor can it be pretended by any one cognizant of the facts, that she has 
made this advance at our expense. Our prosperity, as a nation, is 
greater (han at any former period. The last half a dozen years show 
an advance that cannot be equaled by any period of similar length in 
our history. Money has been abundant; our domestic production, 
and export, at fair prices, much greater than ever before, while what 
we have had to purchase in turn from abroad, has been lower than 
formerly. Wages, generally, have been very high, and the necessaries 
of life abundant and cheap. Even the cotton factoiies, which a year 
or two since were languishing from the high price of the raw material, 
are now doing well. Their numbers are on the increase, and they are 
generally at work on full time. According to a statement, which I 
think correct, they had taken for consumption of cotton, up to the 
latter part of May of this year, 509,293 bales. During the whole of last 
year, they used only 305,246 bales. If, in the latter part of the present 
year, they should take as much as they did for the corresponding 
period of last year, their consumption and manufacture would, for the 
present year, considerably exceed that of any former one, and be fifty 
per cent, greater that that of the highest year under the tariff of 1842. 
If a cotton or iron establishment is sold by the company for debt, the 
fact is at once paraded in certain newspapers, and charged to the want 
of a higher tariff; but when the same factory is started in new hands, 
or when others are built, these journals take no note of it, nor do they 
tell us how many farmers and merchants have their property sold by 
the sheriff or otherwise fail in business. I find, too, that our export of 
cotton goods was, in 1846, $3,545,481, and in 1851, $7,241,205, or more 
than doubled. 

I now propose, Mr. Chairman, to direct the attention of the commit- 
tee to another subject of great magnitude, viz : The modification of 
our navigation laws, and the relaxation of certain restrictions on com- 
merce now existing. The period is perhaps a favorable one for such a 
discussion, because the public mind is now excited on the subject of 
the fishing difficulty. It is proposed by certain persons, that to obtain 
from Great Britain further fishing privileges in her waters, and also 
the right to the free navigation of the St. Lawrence, we should adopt 
a system of free trade with Canada, &c., and so far repeal our tariff as 
to admit Canadian productions free of duty. If this be the whole 
extent we are to go, I am opposed to it. AVhy, sir, has not the country 
been told ten thousand times by the manufacturers, when asking for 
high duties, that though the farmers might thereby have to pay them 
a little more for their goods, yet it would be amply made up to them 
by the manufacturers, who would take their productions in turn, and 
give them better prices than they would get elsewhere. This story has 
been repeated until it is known to every child. And yet, sir, they 
gravely ask us to keep up the taxes on manufactured articles for their 
benefit, and to the oppression of the farmers, and nevertheless propose 
that they shall be allowed to go over to Canada, to purchase such for- 
eign productions as they wish to consume, merely because such things 



^805) 

may be cheaper there than at home. Yes, sir, they wish the farmers to 
bear the burden of the taritt", while they have the benefit of free trade. 
Coming from them, this proposition is the most amazingly impudent 
one that the mind of man has ffver conceived. It would be a very dif- 
ferent thing if they proposed to put all persons on the same footing by 
a general repeal of duties, and permitting all to purchase where they 
could buy most advantageously. 

With respect to our fishermen, I am as anxious as any one to advance 
their interest. They certainly, however, have no reason to complain 
of us. They are now, and have, from time immemorial, been sustained 
by bounties from our Treasury. In addition to getting the salt they 
use in curing fish free of duty, the bounty [»aid to them out of the 
Treasury is, according to the speech of the gentleman from Massachu- 
setts himself, (Mr. Scudder) delivered a few days since, equal to $22.32 
for each person engaged in the business, including both ship-owners 
and fishermen. As they are employed but four months, it is therefore 
equal to $5.58 per month added to their other profits. Would not the 
farming laborers of the country like to have given to them by the gov- 
ernment $5.50 per month, in addition to their wages? Instead of this, 
however, they have to pay in taxes the very money which the govern- 
ment gives over to the fishermen. The fish caught by them are cer- 
tainly a good commodity, but not worth so much to the nation as the 
pork and beef of Oliio, Kentucky and other States, which gets no such 
bounty. It is said that the sailors thus employed serve in times of 
w^ar to man our navy, and defend the country. Tiiis is, to some extent 
true; but it will hardly be affirmed that they render more important 
service than the riflemen of the western and southern country did at 
New Orleans, Buena Vista, and on many other well-fought fields, and 
yet, instead of giving these men bounties out of the Treasury, we 
impose taxes on them. I do not wish to be understood as insisting 
on a repeal of the laws giving these bounties to the fishermen, but 
only to show that they are, in fact, much favored already, while I am 
disposed to obtain for them further advantages, upon what I consider 
fair terms. What are these terms? Simply that, in addition to the 
fishing privilege, the navigation of the St. Lawrence, and free trade 
with Canada, we also so far modify our navigation laws as to extend 
the reciprocity system with Great Britain adopted a few years since, to 
the entire coasting trade of the two countries. 

By the arrangement entered into some three years ago, our ships 
have the right to carry freight, &c., from any port of the British 
dominions to any other country, also from Great Britain to any one of 
her colonies, and from one colony to another. Her ships, too, have the 
right to carry from the United States of any other country ; but our ves- 
sels cannot thus go from one port of Great Britain to another port of 
that island, nor from a port of one of her colonies to another port of the 
same colony, nor can her vessels take cargoes from one port of the 
United States to another in our country. I propose, then so to modify the 
existing system as to allow the vessels of both countries to participate 
in the coasting trade of each. Against this proposition a clamor is 
raised, and one gentleman said in my hearing that we had as well 
39 



(306) 

abolish our navy. Everybody may remember, however, that there was 
a similar apprehension of mischief from tlie adoption of the reciprocity 
system in the foreign trade before it went into effect. But Vv'hat has 
been the result? Instead of our commerce suffering there has been an 
Immense increase, by reason of the free competition thus afforded. Yet 
Great Britain lias not been prejudiced, but on the other hand, has been 
positively benefited. In 1848, the year previous to the repeal of the 
navigation act, the entire tonnage of the United Kingdom was 10,630,- 
000; in 1851, it was 13,471,000 — being an increase of some thirty per 
cent., an amount greater than the advance for an equal period at any 
former time. The increase of British tonnage engaged in the foreign 
trade, which entered the ports of Great Britain in the year 1851, as 
compared with that of 1849, is, however, only five per cent. But that 
of the United States in the same ports was as follows: For the year 
1849, 586,987 tons, and in the year 1851, 779,664 tons — an increase of 
twenty-five per cent, in two j^ears. It thus appears that, in her own 
ports, our tonnage has increased five times as much as hers since the 
adoption of the reciprocity system. How is the comparison on this side 
of the water? I have a statement for the port of New York, which I 
take to be accurate: 



Calendar Years. 



1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 



No. of 
arrrivals. 



2,292 
3,147 
8,060 
3,227 
3,333 
3,840 



Tons 
American. 



496,761 
605,4821 
fi57,794f 
734,9081 
807,500i 
1,144,485 



Tons 
Foreio'n. 



185,404 

333,537 

367,3211 

414,096 

441,756* 

479,5661 



Total Tons. 



682,165 
989,0191 
1,025, 116i 
1,148,1041 
1,249,337 
l,624,051f 



From this it appears that within two years, viz: 1849 and 1851, 
whilst the increase at that port of British tonnage is fifteen per cent., 
that on our side amounts to seventy-eight per cent., or more than five 
times as much. We are, under the system of free competition, beating 
the British everywhere. For the accuracy of this statement with ref- 
ence to the port of New York, I appeal to the gentleman representing 
it, (Mr. Brooks) who made an able speech on this subject in the last 
Congress. 

Mr. Brooks. That increase of tonnage arises from two reasons: first, 
the annexation of California, which has caused an extensive commerce 
around Cape Horn, which we had not before. And, secondly, the 
British navigation act, which has opened all the British ports. 

Mr. Clingman. By the British navigation act, the reciprocity sys- 
tem between both countries has been extended to the foreign trade. I 
am obliged to the gentleman for the candor of his admission. My 
object is to show that free trade upon the ocean has greatly increased 
our commerce, and thereby benefitted us. We now send more abroad 
because of this greater freedom of trade. It is a little singular, some 
gentlemen may think, that both countries should be benefited by this 



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change. The reasou is this : in the first place by reducing the cost, 
you increase the amount of freights. We all know that when people 
can get their productions to market cheaper they sell a great deal 
more. In the next place, wiien one branch of business is glutted, the 
whole field being open, owners of vessels can shift from one employ- 
ment to another. 

What I propose, Mr. Chairman, is this : I am willing to agree with 
Great Britain, that if she will allow our fishermen the privileges they 
desire, and give us the navigation of the St. Lawrence to boot, I will 
go for Canadian free trade, provided we also extend the reciprocity 
system to the coasting trade of both countries. We shall thus greatly 
benefit our agriculturalists. Why should not the farmer, when his 
produce gets to the sea-side, have the right to send it anywhere in the 
ship that will carry it cheapest? Two years since I had occasion to 
state that it cost more to take freight from New Orleans to New York 
than from New York to Canton, on the opposite side of the globe. 
This is a heavy tax on the cotton, pork and flour that goes down the 
Mississippi. 

Why should people be longer compelled to .submit to it? By 
letting in the competition of British ships, and stopping the monopoly, 
we should lower freights, and benefit all the producers of the country. 
Great Britain is able to give us a sufficient equivalent in the way of 
exchange. Unless, however, this is to be done, I am opposed to 
Canadian reciprocity. That would be simply giving Canada all the 
benefits of being in our Union, without her contributing anything to 
support our government. Of course it is good policy for her, and I 
do not wonder that Sir Henry Bulwer, the British minister, was 
anxious for it. Its adoption would tempt a portion of our population 
to go over into Canada. They might thus escape the high tariff" of 
this country, and buy British goods cheap for their own use, and yet 
have the privilege of selling all they made in this country. I repeat, 
I am willing to adopt a general system of free trade, but not a partial 
one for the advantage of a particular class or section. 

I have, Mr. Chairman, discussed these topics with little expectation 
that in the ten days which remain of the present session, we shall see 
any legislation on them, but rather in the hope that at some early day 
of the next session. Congress may be induced to act on them. During 
my time on this floor I have witnessed important results, and great 
changes of public opinion, effected by discusion in these halls ; and, 
if, at this time, I cOuld, by directing the attention of gentlemen to the 
consideration of these points, be instrumental in any manner, or to 
any extent, in convincing'the minds of a majority of the propriety of 
these views, I should feel quite confident that, sooner or later, they 
would, through the medium of the press and otherwise, bring public 
opinion to that condition that would affect the proper legislation to 
carry them into practical operation. I thank the committee for its 
attention, and will no longer occupy its time. 



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[In the early part of 1853, it became manifest that in the selection of a "Whig can- 
didate for the Presidency, a great effort would be made by those controlling the 
Northern wing of the party, to choose a standard bearer regarded as hostile, or at 
least not committed, to the compromise measures of 1850. There seemed to be a 
settled purpose on the part of such leaders as Mr. Seward, to reject Messrs. Webster 
and Fillmore especially, on account of their friendship for those measures. General 
Scott had been induced to place himself m a position that seemed to render him 
available for their purposes. As the spring advanced, I became satisfied that the 
anti-slavery elements in the party would control it. The success of the party under 
such circumstances, would be more disastrous to the country than its defeat. 
Believing that desperate disorders would justify remedies of a decisive character, I 
went to work to produce one of two results. Either to induce the Southern Whigs 
to refuse to join in culling a national convention, except on such conditions as would 
certainly frustrate the purposes of the anti-slavery agitators; or, to l>reak up the 
party as a national organization. 

A circumstance seemed to favor such a movement. President Fillmore hesitated to 
allow his name to go l)efore the convention, as a candidate for the nomination, and 
was considering the propriety of peremptorily withdrawing from the contest. He 
was pressed to take this step, by certain influences in his cabinet. Mr. "Webster and 
his friends were extremely desirous that Mr. Fillmore should withdraw, in order 
that the conservative elements of the party might be concentrated on Mr. "Webster. 
Mr Crittenden, the Attorney General, was a most zealous friend of General Scott, 
and likewise anxious that Mr. Fillmore should retire, in the l)elief that thus, Scott's 
most formidable rival might be gotten rid of. The pressure on Mr. Fillmore fi"om 
these two sources, caused him to decide to give way, and I was apprised that at an 
early day he would announce his determination not to be a candidate for the nomi- 
nation. 

I saw in succession, privately, many of those Southern "Whigs, who were most hos- 
tile to the Seward-Scott movement, and induced them to agree that if Mr. Fillmore 
did decline, in respect to which there was some intimation in the papers, they would 
join in a public declaration against the convention and advise the Southern Whigs to 
decline to go into it. Mr. Fillmore's purpose to withdraw was resisted by a few of 
his friends, and delayed somewhat, l)ut I had the most reliable information, that on 
a day net more than one week in advance, his decision would be made public. 

The Hon. Humphrey Marshall called one morning to see me, and he was strongly 
conservative in his views, and exceedingly averse to the Scott movement then. I 
explained the matter to him, and asked his cooperation in my plan, so that vve 
might by such action either compel the Northern wing to abandon the purpose to 
select Scott, and consent that Mr Webster or some one occupying a similar position 
should be our nominee, or if we failed in this to break up the Whig party, and form 
a new organization that should not be controlled by the anti-slavery elements. 

Contrary to my expectations, however, Mr. Marshall suddenly Ijecame excited and 
said: 'No, I cannot agree to break up the "Whig party." It became known thus 
that if Mr. Fillmore should withdraw, the result would be that the party would be 
disrupted. Immediately thereafter, the policy of the friends of Messrs. "Webster and 
Scott were changed, and Mr. Fillmore was pressed to stand, in order that he might. 



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as the event proved, be made useful in holding the party together for th« benefit of 
of General Scott. 

When a caucus of the "Whig members was called to take into consideration the 
subject of calling a convention, there were manifested great differences of opinion, 
and finally a number of the Southern representatives seceded from it, and published 
an address to the country explaining their reason for so doing. The points involved 
in the controversy are sufficiently set forth in the following letter to the Editor of 
the Republic : 

HorsE OF Representatives, May 10th, 1852. 

To the Editor of the. Republic : 

Sik: a friend has sailed my attention to an article in your paper of 
Saturday last, which makes such reference to nie as justifies my asking 
some space in your columns. The article I refer to has been copied, at 
the request of the Hon.- Ben. Edward (^rey, from i\\(i\^o\x\W\\\Q Journal. 
In justice to my friend from Kentucky, Col. Grey, I think it right to say 
that I know that in asking its i-epublication he was not at all influenced 
by any desire to give currency to that comparatively small portion of it 
which referred especially to myself. Though none who knew the chai'- 
acter of the Louisville Journal would regard me as under any obligation 
to notice any attack which it might contain, or to have any controversy 
with its editor, yet your having republished it, and at the request, too, 
of a highly respectable member of Congress, places the matter in a dif- 
ferent light. I avail myself, therefore, of the occasion thus offered, 
because I desire to present some points connected with the action of the 
late Whig Congressional Caucus, which are not only necessary to my 
own defence, but may also be of interest to the public. 

Waiving, therefore, the consideration of the general topics which have 
Iteen so fully discussed in the address of the seceding members already 
])ublished, I will confine my remarks to a brief statement of some of the 
essential points. In the first place, I did not leave the caucus simply 
because it refused to adopt the precise resolution offered by Mr, Marshall 
or by Mr. Gentry. As I stated, these propositions did not, in my opin- 
ion, go as far as tliey should have done; and, therefore, I proposed an 
additional one by way of amendment. I also reminded the presiding ofti- 
cer that in the caucus held for a similar object four years ago, at which 
the same gentleman, my colleague, Mr. Mangum, presided, the (question 
as to whether there should be any Xational Convention at all was enter- 
tained as the preliminary proposition, and that there had been much dis- 
cussion, and various suggestions relating to that single question ; and 
that in fact on the first evening of our meeting no other subject was 
taken up for consideration ; and that it was not until some weeks after 
we, by a vote of the caucus, had settled this as a preliminary question, 
that the ti.ue and place of holding the convention were fixed. I also 
argued that if, in accordance with this foruier precedent, such a question 
was now entertained, we might either determine to recommend that 
there should be no convention at all, or recommend it with qualifications 
or conditions. Though the chairman stated that he well remembered 
that such had been the course of proceeding at the time referred to, yet 
he declined to follow that precedent. It was because he decided that he 



( 810 ) 

should hold out of order any proposition except such as related to the 
time and place, which decision was sustained by the majority, that I 
declined to take further part in the proceedings of the caucus. 

My reasons, as briefly given and already pnl^lished, were as follows- 
I copy them from the Southern Press of April 24 : 

"Remarks of Mr. Clingman in the Caucus. — Mr. President, if the 
same indulgence is extended to me that has been given to other gentle- 
men during the discussion of this point of order, I can say all 1 desire to 
say to the meeting. It is the more necessary that I should offer a few 
words, because, though 1 agree substantially with those gentlemen, yet 
neither ot the propositions submitted by ray friend from Kentucky, (Mr. 
Marshall,) or by my friend from Tennessee, (Mr. Gentry,) precisely 
meets my own views. It is well known that I not only voted against 
most of the Compromise bills, but that I have also voted more recently 
against the resolutions approving them. To prevent misrepresentation, 
therefore, and in order that my position may be properly understood, I 
have prepared a proposition, which I intend to offer as an amendment, 
or an additional resolution to any tliat might be presented. It not only 
meets my own views, but those also of some other gentlemen here pre- 
sent. Your decision, however, ruling the propositions already presented 
out of order, undoubtedly embraces this, and I therefore will not need- 
lessly consume your time by pressing a decision on it. I say, then, that 
I cannot suj^port the pending proposition to fix the time and place for 
holding a National Convention. I will not in any mode give my sanc- 
tion to the calling of such a convention unconditionally. If I were to 
do so I should feel myself bound in honor to support its nominee. I am, 
therefore, willing to join in calling it only on conditions such as are 
expressed in part by my resolution. I am willing that those gentlemen 
who desire to do so shajl hold a convention and present a nominee ; but 
1 shall then decide for myself whether I vote for that nominee or not. 
I mean to say that I shall not support the individual merely because he 
has been nominated by that convention. 

"The nomination will neither help nor hurt the person selected, in 
my judgment. I wish, therefore, to be understood as neither advocating 
nor opposing the calling of this convention, and do not mean to be bound 
by its action to go further than my sense of duty may prompt. I shall 
hereafter, upon a full view of all the circumstances, determine what I 
ought to do. 

"The folh^wing is the resolution intended to have been offered : 

" Whereas, by the series of measures commonly called the Compro- 
mise, California has been admitted into the-IJnion as a State, the bound- 
ary of Texas has been settled, territorial governments have been estab- 
lished for Utah and Kew Mexico, and the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia has been abolished, and these several measures have been 
acquiesced in and carried into effect ; and whereas resistance has been 
made in certain places to the execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and 
efforts are being made to effect its repeal, or render negative and null its 
provisions : Tlierefore — 

'"''liesolved, That in view of these things, and inasmuch as, under the 



(311) 

Constitntion of the United States, we are entitled to an efficient Fugi- 
tive Slave law, that we have a right to require that this latter law shall 
be sustained and carried out in good faith, and that any National Con- 
vention nominating a Presidential candidate shall, in unequivocal and 
plain language, declare it to he tlie purpose of said convention faithfully 
to carry out this law and that its nominee shall express his concui'i'ence 
in such a proposition." 

"What inconsistency is tliere between my present and former positions ? 
Is not my resolution true in its statement of facts? Tliose features of 
the so-called Compromise which I and others at tlie South objected to, 
have already been carried into effect. California has been admitted as a 
State, and Texas has given up her right to the territory claimed for New 
Mexico by the North, and Congress cannot now change this condition of 
things. The territorial governments of New Mexico and Utah are prac- 
tically just as secure from repeal, and have been carried into effect. So, 
too, is it with the law abolishing the slave trade in the District of Colum- 
bia. Though these several measures were condemned by mj'self and 
others from the South, yet no attempt has been made to repeal them, 
nor does any one expect to prevent their being carried out, or in any 
way to defeat their operation. But how is it with the Fugitive Slave 
law, which the southern friends of the Compromise constantly refer to 
as the equivalent given by the North in exchange for the concessions 
made by the South ? There are not only powerful and organized efforts 
in the North for its repeal or modification, but even its execution, while 
standing on the statute-book, has in many places been successfully resist- 
ed. At Boston a mob entered the court-house, and while the judge was 
sitting on the bench, and in the presence of the assembled multitude, by 
force liberated and carried off a fugitive slave. At Syracuse a similar 
mob rescued another fugitive from the United States marshal, though 
he struggled against them till he was overpowered, and his arm was bro- 
ken. At Christiana the fugitives were aided, and the master murdered, 
by a like concourse of violaters of the law. In the great States of Mas- 
sachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania, these things were done in 
open day, and in the presence of hundi-eds, and yet no one of the wrong- 
doers has been convicted of any offence. After repeated attempts to 
prosecute a part of the Government officers, they have been obliged to 
consent to the discharge of the criminals. This fact, better that an hun- 
dred witnesses, proves the state of feeling which prevades the popular 
mind in these localities. If there was not a strong and general sym- 
pathy for the criminals, some one of them would have been convicted. 
I might refer to siniilar manifestations elsewhere, but they are suffici- 
ently known already. Why more than a year ago the Legislature of the 
State of Vermont passed an act utterly nullifying all the provisions of 
the Fugitive Slave law. This proceeding was loudly complained of at 
the time, and it was said, to quiet the public mind, as I remember by 
the papers in this city, as well as elsewhere, that the act had been passed 
hastily, did not meet the views of the people of the State, and would be 
repealed by the next Legislature. But, unfortunately for the prophe- 
siers, when last winter the Legislature reassembled, the proposition to 
repeal this act of nullification was rejected by a vote of nearly three to 



(312) 

one — making; it manifest that tlie settled action of the State was against 
the execution of tlie law of Congress. A similar nullifying law a few 
weeks since, according tu the statements published in the papers, passed 
the Senate of Massachusetts, and only failed in the House by a vote of 
one hundred and sixty-two to one hundred and seventy eight. Such 
things, when they occur in the Northern States now, do not even excite 
the comment of some of the national papers here at the seat of Govern- 
ment. But if the State of South Carolina, which, without actually 
carrying it out, has threatened to nullify, in former times; if this State. 
I say, were really to nullify, or seriously even threaten to nullify any act 
of Congress of as much importance as the one under consideration, the 
whole country from this point to Canada, and such portions of the South- 
ern people as sympathize mainly with Northern movements, would at 
once be thrown into a state of ferment, and the Executive would be 
compelled by the force of public opinion to send as many troops as were 
at his disposal to Sullivan's Island or other points on tlie coast of that 
State to endeavor to overawe her. 

But it is not necessary for me to argue further to show that there are 
serious obstacles in the way of the execution of the Fugitive Slave law 
of 1850, or of any legislative provision to carry out that feature of the 
Constitution. The expense alone of recovering a fugitive is sufficient to 
defeat the object of the law. That expense would not be necessary were 
it not for the resistance made by the mobs to its execution. 

In support of my own course and views, I quote a paragraph from the 
address already published b}" the seceding members. Let it be borne in 
mind that they are all, except Mr. Morton and myself, sup])orters of the 
Compromise measures. It is in the following words: 

" After another series of 3'ears new acquisitions of territory were 
made — new disputes arose touching the same powers and the same ques- 
tions. A new compromise was made, whereby the balance of power 
was yielded by the slaveholding States, and the reins of empire were 
delivered up to tjie free States by the admission of California into the 
Union. The slave trade was suppressed in the District of Columbia, 
territorial governments were created over the whole public domain, and 
an act was passed to enforce the delivery of fugitives from labor. This 
settlement being made, has the South murmured at the law suppressing 
the slave trade in this District? Look upon the opposite picture. Reply 
to your own hearts, how has the law for the delivery of fugitive slaves 
been executed ? We ask merely that the Whig party shall not go behind 
this last settlement; that it shall nationalize itself by taking a lirm and 
true position upon the finality of this settlement, and shall hold its 
members bound, without regard to fornier opinions, to maintain and 
enforce this settlement in gojd faith, and honestly." 

The view here taken substantially accords with my own position. I 
was originally opi)Osed to this system of measures. Inasmuch as the 
Constitution expressly provided that fugitives should be given up, I 
thought that we were entitled as a matter of right, without bargain, to 
an effcient law to carry into effect that provision. I did not, therefore, 
consent to pa}^ the price demanded. But it was determined otherwise; 
and the measures relating to the disposition of the territorial acquisitions 



( 313 ) 

liave been executed, and are now beyond recall. The Fu^^itive Slave 
law alone is executory in its character, and is liable to be repealed, 
modified, or resisted. 

Though I regarded the bargain as a whole as an unwise one, yet, since 
what we have paid cannot be gotten back, have I not a right to insist 
that the other i^irty shall pay what was promised, even though it be less 
than I hold it ought to have been? It" a man were to convey by deed 
to another a piece of land worth one thousand dollars, with a promise 
of only five hundred in return for it, might you not well say to him that 
heJias made a bad trade, but that, as his land was gone forever, he ought 
to insist that the purchase-money should at least be paid ? This view of 
the case is so clear and easy of comprehension, that I must be excused 
for doubting the sincei-ity of any one wlio professes not to understand it. 
At least, he who does not see it, is covered by a coating of stupidity 
thick enough and hard enough to turn the edge of any argument, how- 
ever sharp it may be, and however forcibly driven. 

From the day of the passage of these measures, I have said again and 
again that, notwithstanding the great concession made to the North, it 
would not remain satisfied, and that the Southern compromise men 
would soon be put on the defensive again. I have all the while held 
myself ready to co-operate with them. Having failed to maintain suc- 
cessfully my own position for the want of a larger number of allies, it 
is my duty to fall back on the next line of defence that seems tenable. 
What would be thought of a soldier who in battle, because the advanced 
position which he wished defended was abandoned, should refuse to co- 
operate with his comrades in defending any other line which might be 
occupied l)y them? Feeling confident that the A])olitionists would not 
give quarter to my countrymen, duty and patriotism required that I 
should be ready to aid them whenever they found it necessary to make 
a stand. 

It will be seen that my resolution went beyond those of the other 
gentlemen with whom I was co-operating. It in substance proposed 
that we should not give the sanction of a congressional caucus of the 
Whig party to the holding of any national convention, except upon con- 
dition that certain principles should be adopted as a basis of action. 
But it is said that we are disposed to thrust a sectional issue upon the 
<;jonvention. It is not so ; for the Constitution of the United States is 
binding in all its provisions on all sections of the Union, and must be 
carried out in all its features by every citizen. He, therefore, who is 
opposed to the enfoi'cement of any one of its provisions, is himself a 
sectional man, and ought tlierefore to be excluded from all part in the 
proceedings of any national convention. Before entering into a political 
partnership with any set of men, we have a right to require that they 
shall adopt principles co-extensive with the Constitution and the rights 
of all sections under it. And if the individuals composing the body 
about to assemble really entertain proper national feelings, why should 
they hesitate to say so? It is the high privilege of American freemen 
to speak the truth, and why should they not exercise this great right? 

The fact cannot be denied, that within the last half a dozen years a 
large portion of the so-called Whig ])arty has become a mere northern 
sectional anti-slavery party. To show how this was brouglit about would 
40 



(314) 

extend the limits of this letter too much, and I content myself with a 
reference to a few well-known prominent facts. In the thirtieth Con- 
gress every member of the House of Representatives from the free States 
regularly voted for the Wilmot proviso, with a view of excluding the 
South from the occupation of every acre of the Mexican territory. The 
fact that fifteen States, by their legislative action, adopted this proviso, 
shows how general and pervading was this feeling among all parties at 
the North. And in the Presidential canvass following, viz., of 1848, 
the section of tlie party in those States took extreme anti slavery ground. 
When, therefore, the thirty-first Congress assembled, it was found that 
all of the eighty-four Whig members from the North had been, either 
by their own declarations, or by the resolves of the nominating district 
conventions, pledged to put the proA'iso on the territorial governments, 
and to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. Though diiferent in 
name, yet these gentlemen agreed in principle with that large section of 
the Abolition party which supported John P. Hale as a Presidential 
candidate. While they all professed a regard for the Constitution, and 
disclaimed all purpose to interfere with slavery in the States, yet they 
alike asserted not only the right, but also the duty, of Congress to ex- 
clude slavery wherever it had jurisdiction, and especially to prohibit it 
in the Territories, and abolish it in the District. It will be recollected 
that in the Congressional caucus which assembled at the commence- 
ment of the session of the last Congress, when a discussion on these 
points sprung up on the presentation of Mr. Tooml)s' resolution, that 
a gentleman from New York, Mr. Brooks, declared that he had had 
a conference with his colleague from the city, (understood to be Mr. 
Briggs,) and that they had determined not to vote at that session (the 
first one) for any proposition to abolish slavery in the District. Not- 
withstanding the pressing and urgent nature of the discussion on that 
occasion, no other gentleman from the North made a similar declaration, 
while many who did speak asserted the contrary. It was a full knowl- 
edge of this state of things that induced me shortly after to declare, on 
the fioor of the House, that I regarded the Northern portion of the 
AVhig party as neither national nor conservative, but eminently sectional 
and destructive in its policy. It is true that during the progress of the 
session several public-spirited and patriotic gentlemen from that section 
changed their position ; but their number was so inconsiderable, com- 
pared with the whole, as not materially to change tlie position of the 
party, only three voting fur the Fugitive Slave act, even after they had 
obtained the admission of California, and other measures relating to the 
Territory. Since that time a favorable change has, in certain portions 
of the free States, been going on, but it has not yet progressed to that 
point which would justify any one in sa_ying that the Whig party of the 
North, as a body, occupies national ground. This, however, is what we 
propose tliey shall do in the approaching convention ; otherwise they 
have not the shadow of a claim to justify them in asking our co-opera- 
tion. Should that convention adopt a national platform with the assent 
of its nominee, those who aid in his election will be compelled to defend 
the principles upon which lie stands. 

liy consecpience. Abolitionist, Higher law men, and all enemies to any 
feature of the Constitution, must either adopt our principles or be thrown 



(315) 

out of the party altogethei-. The collision and discussion between our 
friends and these persons will. I think, result in their being crushed. 
Such certainly I believe will be the eflfect, if the Democratic party 
should also take an unequivocal, national platform. The South, as the 
section most interested in the pending questions, ought to hold herself 
in position to co-operate with such party in the North as may stand upon 
truly national gi'ound. But should neither of the prominent parties take 
such a position, the country is to see merely a struggle for the otRces, a 
contest scarcely worthy of the consideration of statesmen. Let us sup- 
pose, on the other hand, that the Democratic Convention should take 
proper ground, and that of the Whig party fail to do so. The result 
would be that the AVhigs, being in position to court the Al)olitionistSj 
would win them over by adopting entirely their doctrines, and have their 
aid in breaking doMm their Democratic rivals, whom they would stigma- 
tize as pro-slavery men, &c. In such a proceeding it becomes not me to 
take part. If they can get into power by such means instead of my 
assistance they shall have my determined opposition. If the friends of 
the Constitution are to be exterminated, I shall not join in the war 
against them. If Webster is to be crushed in Massachusetts, and Dick- 
inson trampled down in New York, because they have been willing to 
do what, in their judgment, the Constitution required them to do in 
behalf of tiie riglits of the South, I at least will not fight in the ranks 
against them. If the blood of our allies is to be shed, it shall not stain 
my hands. Concurrence in such a proceeding would, on the part of 
Southern men, be not only criminal, but in the highest degree impolitic. 
There would be a terrible recoil on us. When hereafter the anti-slavery 
party, invigorated by this process, and flushed with victory, shall assail 
us, and we the minority call upon patriotic men of the North to aid us, 
what response can we expect ? Will they not point us to the graves of 
our former northern allies, and remind us that we are in the habit of 
throwing off our friends the moment we cease to need their aid, and of 
permitting them to be sacrificed to gratify the vengeance of the Aboli- 
tionists ? We shall be left to our own energies, and a collision between 
the two sections will most probably result in the overthrow of the Gov- 
ernment. The whole anti-slavery movement in the North lias been 
unconstitutional and sectional. They have sought to pervert from their 
legitimate purposes the powers with which the Federal Government was 
invested for the protection of all the States and their citizens, and to use 
them as a means of attack against the people of the Southern States. It 
is not less unjust than it would be if the guns on the ramparts of a for- 
tress, stationed there to repel the external enemy, should be turned in- 
ward by those having them in charge, and fired at a part of the garrison. 
Instead of co-operating with such traitors to the Constitution, it is the 
duty of the South to oppose them. My advice to the men of my own 
section is to come together, so that they may in a body stand by the 
national men of the North, If we do that, we shall have friends enough 
there to assist us in giving the Government a national line of policy. As 
long as we are divided — as long as we give as much aid to our enemies 
as to our friends — we may expect to be sufferers. 

I have confined my remarks for the present to the bearing merely of 
the slavery questions. Of course, there are other important points of 



( 316 ) 

policy to be considered in connexion witli the choice of candidates for 
the Presidency. I wish to be understood as being neither the advocate 
nor the opponent of any named candidate. What I have said has, as it 
purports to have, reference only to general principles of action. If I 
have made no reference to the action of the Northern Deraocrac}', it is not 
because 1 do not find matter for condemnation. As I am not connected 
with them by party affinity, of course I am in no way responsible for 
their past or future conduct. My purpose at this time is merely to show 
upon what terms I am willing to co-operate with the northern section of 
the Whig party. 

1 have thus rapidly and hurriedly glanced at some of the points now 
under discussion in the pi'ints of the day. M}' purpose has been to com- 
press what I wished to say within such narrow limits, that those editors 
who regard ra}'' individual course as a matter of sufficient moment to the 
public to justify their making it a matter of discussion, may be able to 
place these views before their readers without a sacrifice of too much 
space in their columns. Very respectfully, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

Attempts were made from time to time, until the meeting of the convention, to 
harmonize the Northern and Southern wings of the party but with little success. 
Though apparently the contest seemed in a great measure to relate to the endorsement 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, yet it really reached much deeper. By this time many 
of the Southern Whigs saw that the real ol>ject ot the Seward wing was to continue 
the agitation of the slavery issue, and by killing off Fillmore and Webster, to deter 
others from manifesting moderate views. Finally, when the convention assembled, 
to conciliate the South, the Scott men adopted a platform that was satisfactory upon 
the whole, and took their own candidate. In order that they might while support- 
ing the candidate, feel at liberty to "spit upon the platform," as Mr. Greeley in his 
Tribune put the case. General Scott, in his letter of acceptance, studiously avoided 
endorsing the platform. 

This device, however, failed, though perhaps it promised as much as any other con- 
trivance could have effected. It was obvious that a fatal breach existed between the 
Northern and Southern wings of the old Whig party. Scott's course not only drove 
off so many men from his party in the South, that he obtained only two States, but 
even in the North so many moderate men left him that in that section he was 
able to carry but two States. And when in the next Presidential election Mr. Fill- 
more was nominated to satisfy the compromise men, he did not obtain a single 
Northern electoral vote. In a word, the adoption of extreme anti-slavery views by 
its Northern members, rendered it impossible that it should exist as a national 
organization. 

To indicate the tone of argument upon which General Scott was opposed and 
broken down in the South, my letter to Dr. Mills is presented : 

, Letter to Dr. Ladson A. Mills. 

Raleigh, October 8, 1852, 
Dear Sir: In compliance with j^our request, I proceed briefly to state, 
in writing, the substance of my conversation with you in relation to 



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the approaching Presidential election. I do this the more readily, not 
only because I have no political opinions that I wish to conceal, but 
because as one of my immediate constituents you are entitled to have 
them in a form capable of preservation for future reference. 

From the time of General Scott's nomination I have universally 
stated, in conversation with my colleagues, other members of Congress, 
and in fact all who felt an interest in knowing my views, that I did 
not intend to support General Scott. In reply also to such letters as I 
received, asking for my opinion, I repeatedly wrote to the same effect, 
to gentlemen of both political parties who were residents of my district, 
and also to some from other portions of the State. Several of these 
letters were written soon after General Scott's nomination, to gentle- 
men of both parties canvassing for seats in the Legislature. I mention 
this lest it should be charged that I hesitated to commit myself in 
writing, since it was easy for any one of those gentlemen — there being 
no injunction of secrec}' on them — to have furnished evidence of my 
position. I did not think it expedient to make a publication on the 
subject, partly because it was said by the papers friendly to General 
Scott, that members of Congress ought not to attempt to dictate to the 
people, and in part, also, because I preferred giving my views to my 
constituents face to face, in a full and free manner, on my return to my 
district. 

In 1848, seeing that the contest was likely to be between General 
Ta^'lor and General Scott, and that the former had refused to take any 
position with reference to the great pending questions of the day, and 
not being disposed to adopt him on trust, and blindly support him, I, 
after long waiting for a develepment of General Taylor's views deter- 
mined to advocate the nomination of General Scott, rather than his. 
Since then T have had no reason to regret that course. As I appre- 
hended and predicted, as soon as the policy of General Taylor's admin- 
istration was developed, with reference to the great slavery questions 
then pending, I, in conjunction with a majority of the Southern Whig 
members of Corigress, was thrown into oj){)Osition to it. Though such 
was the condition of things for several months before General Taylor's 
death, yet the public was not generally aware of it. His sudden 
demise prevented an open and violent collision. About the first of 
July, 1850, it was determined, at a meeting of a decided majority of 
the Southern Whig members of Congress, that it was our duty, before 
an open declaration of hostilities, to advise the then President of our 
purposes, &c. Three gentlemen were selected for that purpose, to wit: 
the Hon. C. M. Conrad, the present Secretary of War, the Hon. 
Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, and the Hon. Robert Toombs, of 
Georgia. They, in accordance with the views of the meeting, sepa- 
rately called on the President and gave him to understand that he 
must expect our determined opposition if he persisted in resisting such 
a compromise as we advocated, and insisted on his policy of admitting 
California and New Mexico as States, and supporting the claim of the 
latter to the territory on this side of the Rio Grande. According to their 
several reports to us, General Taylor was unyielding, and frankly 
declared to them that as soon as the Constitution of New Mexico 



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reached him, which he looked for in a few days, he should send in a 
message to Congress recommending its admission at once as a State, 
as he had done in the case of California; that he also declared that 
Texas had no right to the territory claimed by her, and that he was 
disposed to support the claim of New Mexico against her. To one of 
these gentlemen, he said that he was placed in such a position that he 
would probably be forced to sacrifice one wing of his party; and that 
we ought not to expect him to sacrifice eighty -four men from the 
North rather than twenty-nine men from the South, these being the 
number of members of the Northern and Southern sections of the Whig 
party in Congress. The great bod}^ of the Southern members of Con- 
gress, with Mr. Clay at tlieir head, would thus have been thrown into 
opposition, and woald have been compelled, with the aid of the con- 
servative men of the North, to fight the whole force of the administra- 
tion. The death of General Taylor alone prevented a struggle which 
would have shaken the country to its centre. The decree of Providence 
thus averted the contest, but the lesson is one which ought not to be 
lost on us. Without, however, going into detail on these points, I 
proceed at once to speak of General Scott. 

In the summer of 1849, his Canada annexation letter was published. 
General Taylor having just been inaugurated, it seemed probable that 
he might be re-nominated for election, with the support, as it was then 
supposed, of the whole South. It would be necessary to secure the 
Northern vote in opposition, to supersede him. General Scott, there- 
fore, v/hile expressing his wish for the acquisition of Canada, volun- 
tarily and without being questioned on the point, went on to declare 
his opposition to the acquisition of Mexican territory. In substance 
he said that while he was for taking territory that would strengthen 
the North, he was opposed to such acquisition as might in like 
manner keep the South even with the North. I then looked upon 
this as an open, undisguised declaration of his wish to be regarded as 
the Northern presidential candidate. It could be considered in no 
other light than as a bid for Northern support at the expense, too, of 
our essential interests. During my journey through the Northern 
States in the autumn of that year, I had other evidences to the same 
effect. I felt that General Scott had not, in the position he had vol- 
untarily taken, an}' claims on me or any other Southern man. On 
the contrary, I saw that the rights of my section under the Constitu- 
tion, as equals in the Union, had been put up for sale in the political 
market for anti-slavery votes. It was obvious that General Scott 
believed he could be elected by Northern votes alone. In fact I have 
the best reason to believe that he, much more recently than the time 
I refer to, repeatedly expressed the opinion that he could be elected 
without a vote from a slave State. For the last three years he has 
been identified with the anti-slavery party of the North; but in 1848, 
Mr. Seward, who is the leader of that party, was opposed to him. 
During the session of the Whig Convention at Philadelphia, in that 
year, I had some conferences with Mr. Thurlow Weed, the editor of" 
the Albany Evening Journal^ and with Mr. Horace Greeley, the editor 
of the New York Tribune^ both of them being well known as intimate 



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friends and mouth pieces of William H. Seward. They were utterly 
hostile to General Scott, and said he could not possibly be supported 
by them, on account of his Nativeism and various other points enu- 
merated by them. Why is it that Mr. Seward and these gentlemen 
have since taken fip General Scott and given him the nomination? 
^^Because they found they could make use of him to destro}' Messrs. 
Fillmore, Webster, and other friends of the compromise; and they 
therefore seized upon him as a fitting instrument for that purpose. 
But, it is said, that he had in his private conversations expressed him- 
self in favor of those measures. If it be true, it makes the case 
stronger against him. After the passage of the bills, a fierce attack 
wasmade on those men at the North who had had the liberality to assist 
in gettiiig them through. Seward and his followers took the field to 
crush Webster and Fillmore. But while the storm of war was raging 
for their destruction, where was General Scott? As they had only done 
what he thought it was their duty to do, why did he not stand by 
them like a man? A sentence from his pen declaring his approbation 
of their course would have materially aided them. Though appealed 
to again a)id again, he would not wn-ite it. On the contrary, he allowed 
his name to be inscribed on the banners of their enemies. It was 
under the cover of his militiuy glory that Seward and his clan fought 
the battle against our allies. A^'^as such a proceeding fair and honor- 
able on the part of General Scott? Let me state a similar case for 
illustration. Sup})0se that, during the Mexican campaign, a portion 
of his army had, in accordance with his approbation, taken an ad- 
vanced and dangerous position, which nevertheless it was necessary 
for the safety of the army should be taken; suppose, too, that when 
they had been fiercely assailed by Santa Anna and his armies, that 
General Scott, tliough able to protect them, had stood aloof and allowed 
them to be destroyed; suppose, too, that he had, without objection, 
permitted Santa Anna to carry his own banner, and fight them thus, 
in the name of General Scott, who ought rather to have protected 
them; and sup{)ose, to crown all, that General Scott had then become 
the associate and triumphant leader of Santa Anna's part}^! To show 
that the cases are alike you have only to substitute Fillmore and 
Webster, who took the extreme position for the Compromise with 
General Scott's approbation; then put Seward, Johnston, and other 
Abolitionists as their assailants instead of Santa Anna and his followers. 
Under General Scott's banner and in his name they have fought and 
conquered our allies in the North; and General Scott takes the nomi- 
nation from their hands. But it may be said that such a case as I 
have put could not have occurred; that General Scott as an honor- 
able soldier, would not have so acted, and that he, in ftict, did refuse 
the presidency from the Mexicans. All this I admit. General Scott, 
the soldier, would not have so behaved, but in the field of politics has 
he not so acted? I agree that he has done so because he was entrapped 
by the politicians, who were more cunning than he Many of his 
friends try to evade it by saying that though under the influence of 
ambition, he acted wrong to get the nomination, yet he will do right 
if elected. But if Seward and company have had influence enough 



(820) 

heretofore to keep him silent when it was his duty to have spoken, 
will they not have just as much influence after his election ? Will they 
not threaten to abandon his administration? Will he not, to secure 
their support, they being the great majority in his party, just as 
General Taylor did, determine, as a military man, to sacrifice the small 
body from the South? And when we are pressed again, as we doubt- 
less shall be, what Northern man, either Whig or Democrat, will come 
to our relief? If we, the minority, sacrifice our friends and put in our 
enemies, what right have we to look for Northern supf>ort again ? 

But it may be said if we refuse to support General Scott, General 
Pierce will be elected. If he were a dangerous man, there might be 
force in the objection. I have closely scrutinized his course since the 
beginning of the canvass. Upon all questions connected with slavery 
and the rights of the South, no man that I know of, from any section 
of the Union, has a better record. Wiiile he has been, as far as I know, 
true to all the great essential interests of his own section, his votes and 
speeches prove him to have been eminently just and liberal to us. 
Since his retirement from Congress his course has been consistent and 
national. He was active in putting down, in the Democratic party of 
New Hampshire, John P. Hale, the Abolition candidate for the Presi- 
dency. More recently he did the same with respect to Atwood. Mr. 
Atwooa, a political and personal friend of General Pierce, was the 
Democratic nominee for Governor. Shortly before the election, when 
there was every prospect of the success of Mr. Atwood — as his oppon- 
ent, the Whig candidate, was like all the other Whigs of New Hamp- 
shire, hostile to the Fugitive Slave Law — -he likewise wrote a letter 
expressing his opposition to that measure. General Pierce, being only 
then a private citizen, was under no particular obligation to interfere. 
He might, too, have said that both the candidates were merely stand- 
ing on the same ground. Besides, neither he nor the people of New 
Hampshire, had any practical interest in the Fugitive Slave Law. It 
was there a mere question of justice to the South ; and yet General 
Pierce took it upon himself to travel some distance to see Mr. Atwood, 
and on his refusal to take back his letter, he commenced a movement 
which resulted in degrading Atwood from his position as the Demo- 
cratic candidate for Governor, and in substituting a sound man in his 
place. It was thus that General Pierce, a private citizen, under no 
especial obligation to take so much trouble and odium on himself, 
acted from a mere determination to do justice to the constitutional 
rights of the South. How does General Scott's conduct compare with 
it? In Pennsylvania, General Scott was nominated for the Presidency 
by the same Convention that nominated Governor Johnson for re-elec- 
tion. But Governor Johnson refused to sign a bill passed by the 
Democratic Legislature of Pennsylvania to facilitate the execution of 
the Fugitive Slave Law, and was, in fact, avowedly hostile to that 
measure. Here, then, was a proper case for the interference of Gene- 
ral Scott, he being associated in the nomination of the Convention 
with Johnson. Ought he not, in justice to himself, if he was a friend 
to the Compromise, to have written at least a letter vindicating his 
position ? But, on the contrary, he was as mute as the grave, and lent 



(321) 

the whole weight of his military popularity to the support of Johnson. 
And he was repaid by the exertions of Governor Johnson, who after his 
defeat by the Democratic candidate, came to the Convention at Balti- 
more and carried his delegation for General Scott. 

But it is said that we were represented in the Convention, and are 
therefore bound to support its nominee. Suppose it had nominated 
Fred Douglas, the free negro — the same argument might have been 
used. Should it be said that this is not a supposable case, then would 
we not have been bound to support Mr. Seward, wlio will doubtless, if 
the South acquiesces and assists in the election of General Scott, be the 
next nominee ? 

If we are not bound to go for any nominee unless he is a proper 
person, is not this the time for us to make the stand ? It is, however, 
said that allegiance to our party requires support of its ticket. It was 
Decatur's motto that one's country must be supported right or wrong; 
but are we to do the same by a party? The independent freemen 
of the section from which you and I come, have not thought so. 
When General Jackson was first elected he did not lose two hundred 
votes in our congressional district. But in 1840, when his party 
presented Martin Van Buren as a candidate for re-election, there 
was a majority of four thousand four hundred votes against him. 
That was an exhibition of independence worthy of American free- 
men, who ought always to prefer the interests of their country to 
mere party success. If the Whig Convention has now, as I think, 
made, under the circumstances, an unworthy nomination ought 
we not to repudiate it? I do not at present see any practical issue 
pending between the parties of sufficient magnitude to require us 
to sustain the Whig nominee at all hazards. All the Whigs appear 
to be satisfied with Mr. Fillmore's administration. And yet, since he 
came into office, there has been no now measure of a party character 
passed. The sub-Treasury, tariff, and other general laws enacted in 
Mr. Polk's time, have not been changed. There is but one of them 
Mr. Fillmore recommended change in, viz: the tariff. With reference 
to that, however, the last Legislature of our own State, with unanimity 
both among the Whigs and Democrats, passed strong resolutions 
against any increase of duties. There seems in fact no reason to sup- 
pose that under Mr. Pierce, if he should come in, there would be any 
material change in these respects. 

But it is said that the Van Burens and other Free Soilors are sup- 
porting Pierce. It must be remembered, however, that he was not 
nominated through their influences, but in direct opposition to them. 
It was the South, with the aid of the conservative Democrats of the 
North, that effected his nomination. These Free Soilers, therefore, 
being overpowered, merely for the sake of keeing in with their part}'-, 
fell into the rear of the movement. But in the case of General Scott 
the reverse was true. He was nominated by the influence of Seward, 
Johnston, and other anti-slavery leaders, against the united and deter- 
mined efforts of the whole South and the Compromise men of the 
North, and if we support him we must expect to constitute a tail to 
the army of Abolitionists in front. It may be said that as the Van 
41 



(322) 

Burens, &c., have yielded, we ought to follow their example. But they 
have in reality surrendered nothing practical, because the}' had no 
interest in this question. Their anti -slavery, if not merely taken up to 
defeat Cass, was at least only a fancy matter, and in giving it up they 
have only to sacrifice some pride of consistencv. We of the South, on 
the contrary, have a practical interest, — a great stake in the slavery 
question. Should we abandon it and throw ourselves into the embraces 
of the Abolitionists, who from the North will be able to extricate us ? 
I pass over, sir, ixany grave points of objection to General Scott that 
have been urged by others, especially his contemptuous manner of 
slurring over the platform by "accepting the nomination with the 
resolutions annexed." He not only fails to follow the example of 
General Pierce by declaring that the principles meet his approbation ; 
but inasmuch as there was a great pressure upon him to get him up 
to the work, his failure is ominous. Fairly construed, his language, 
under all the circumstances, only seems to imply that he liked the 
nomination so much that he was willing to take it notwithstanding 
the objectionable resolutions tied on to it. So is he construed through- 
out the North; and he must, when he wrote the words, have felt a 
contempt for our understandings if he thought we could put any other 
construction on them. I am sorry that his supporters, instead of 
endeavoring to meet these issues, are merely striving to get up an 
excitement in relation to his military services by the exhibition of 
pictures, &c. Brilliant military services, like his, are a great feature 
in the cap of any man; but our people have not deemed them alone 
sufficient to qualify one for the Presidential office, in despite of great 
political objections. 

I make no reference to the personal charges against the candidates 
because they are unnecessarily and most unworthily made. Having 
known General Scott for a great many years, it gives me pleasure to 
testify to his high moral worth and honorable qualities as a soldier 
and a man. Though I have never seen General Pierce, yet all of those 
who served with him in Mexico, that I have met, concur in saying 
that no man there was more respected or more popular. The intelli- 
gence, courage, and high tone of that array forbid the idea that they 
would have held General Pierce in the estimation they did, if he had 
been deficient in any manly or honorable quality. Those politicians, 
too, who have served with him in either House of Congress, as far as I 
have heard them speak, have expressed themselves invariably in the 
most favorable terms with respect to him. 

I am well aware, sir, that the expression of these opinions may sub- 
ject me to denunciation from some. If I had consulted only my per- 
sonal convenience, I might well have fallen into the general current 
of the party. Not having in any way committed myself against Gen- 
eral Scott prior to his nomination, I might have claimed credit as an 
early supporter, and occupied, doubtless, a position in the front of his 
party. But had I done so, I would not have acted in accordance with 
my own sense of right. I have too often encountered opposition in the 
conscientious discharge of my duty to hesitate now. 



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If Franklin Pierce was willing to encounter a storm of opposition 
and obloquy by opposing the strong Abolition current of the North, 
as he did in putting down Atwood, merely to sustain the rights of a 
distant section of the Union, ought not you and I, and others, to be 
willing to make some sacrifices, if necessary, to maintain the great 
essential interests of our own section? When General Scott received 
the nomination, was it not the general feeling of our people that he 
ought not to be supported ? That was an honest, patriotic impulse. 
Under pressing solicitations and the ii>fluence of party prejudice many 
have reluctantly yielded acquiescence. Is it not better, however, to 
consider the matter calmly and act solely for the interest of the coun- 
tr}'- ? If General Scott should be elected, under all existing oircum- 
stances, it not only consigns to their political graves forever, Messrs. 
Fillmore and Webster, and other Compromise Whigs of the North; 
but the defeat of General Pierce will tend powerfully to deter any 
Northern Democrat from again standing up for our rights. This is 
what Seward and his followers are evidently seeking to accomplish. 
Ought we to aid them in such a movement, intended as it is solely to 
effect our political and social destruction ? Is it not, under all the 
circumstances, better that Franklin Pierce should be elected rather 
than General Scott? By repudiating the nomination of the latter, by 
making it manifest that he was beaten, not merely because the Demo- 
cratic party was the strongest, but because also the conservative men 
of the country generally refused to support him, we may prevent the 
recurrence of a similar nomination by any future convention, and 
greatly contribute to ensure the future quiet of the country. 
I am, very respectfully, yours, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

To show more fully the circumstances and argum ents which led to the disas- 
astrous defeat incurred by General Scott, and which in fact terminated the existence 
as a national organization of the old Whig party, the following address to my con- 
stituents is republished. The first part of it is devoted to the summing up of the 
objections to General Scott, but there is in it a good deal of matter that is local or 
personal, which is omitted. 

Washington, January 12, 1853. 

Fellow-Citizens: In the short interval which elapsed between the 
close of the last and the commencement of the present session of Con- 
gress, I did not, in consequence of my being unwell for some weeks, 
find time to visit all the counties of our district; I determined, there- 
fore, to avail myself of the first leisure time to address you in expla- 
nation of my views, and to defend myself against attacks. This I 
regarded as alike due to myself, whether I should or should not again 
be a candidate before you. That is a question which can be decided 
with more propriety at the close of my present term of service, than 
it could at an earlier day. Valuing as I do my character as a man, 
and reputation as a statesman, more than mere political success, I 
shall leave all considerations only connected with the latter to a 
future day. 



( 824 ) 

For several years past old party topics have been lost sight of, and 
overridden entirely by questions connected with the institution of 
slavery. Though for a great while abolition societies have been active 
in the Northern States, yet the agitation did not assume a formidable 
shape until within the last half-dozen years. During the Mexican war, 
there being a prospect that territory would be acquired, the Wilniot 
proviso was brought forward. The effect of that movement was to 
provide that in whatever territory we might acquire, no slaveholder 
should settle with his property. By this means the territory would be 
carved into free States, and by its political affinities strengthen the 
North. This was the main object of Northern politicians. They 
intended that while no more slave States should be admitted into the 
Union, a number of free States might come in, so as to give them the 
entire control, in a few years, of the government. It was their purpose 
not only to secure thus all the political power of the Union, but in the 
end to effect the abolition of slavery, or the passage of measures 
destructive to our interests. On our part we resisted this state of 
things, not only because of its mischievous tendency, but also on 
account of its gross injustice. The Southern States besides paying a 
liberal proportion of the taxes necessary to sustain the war, actually 
furnished twice as many soldiers as the North. As our population 
was in fact but little more than half theirs, we thus contributed, pro- 
portionally, four times as much as their section. Feeling indignant 
at the attempt to exclude us entirely, we struggled to effect either such 
a settlement as might leave the territory open to every citizen of the 
Republic, so that he could go into it with such property as he could 
hold at home, or at least to get some equitable division. Most 
Southern men were willing to take the Missouri line as a compromise, 
though it would have given us only one third of the territory acquired. 

The Congress in which this measure was introduced, passed by with- 
out any final action. When tlie next Congress assembled in Decem- 
ber, 1847, the subject was renewed. I found that every single Whig 
from the free States, and a large portion of the Democrats likewise, 
steadily supported, on every division, the })rinciple of the Wilmot pro- 
viso. When, feeling indignant at such palpable injustice, we remon- 
strated with Northern Whigs, we were often told not to be alarmed, 
that they only intended to use this question as a means of stopping the 
Mexican war, and of splitting into two the Democratic party in New 
York, who were divided on the question. They declared, from time 
to time, that they did not intend to push the matter to a practical issue, 
and that we need feel no alarm whatever. They assured us, most 
emphatically, that they intended to take no ground in the end that 
would oblige Southern Whigs to abandon them. On the side of the 
Democrats there were many against us likewise, and General Cass, the 
head of the party, occupied in his Nicholson letter, a position unsatis- 
factory to us, and which, subsequently was repudiated also by the bulk 
of his party in the South. General Taylor, our candidate, took no 
position whatever on this subject, but we preferred risking the chances 
with him, to one whose doctrine was objectionable. The first attempt 
at settlement which came near succeeding was that known as the Clay- 



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ton Compromise. This measure was bitterly opposed by ever}^ Northern 
Whig in the House of Representatives. They declared that it was, in 
its tendency merely calculated to elect Cass, and that if it were 
defeated, they would afterwards give us a better settlement, &c. I do 
not suppose that any Southern Whig was induced to take ground 
against the bill on the strength of these assurances alone, though it is 
probable that such i)romises operated in aid of other objections. In 
fact, it is due to the eight gentlemen from the South who assisted in 
defeating the measure, that I should say that though I did not act 
with them, yet I concurred in the opinion that this bill fell far short 
of doing the South justice. These gentlemen, and all of us from that 
section, in fact, had a right to look for a better adjustment. I am sorry 
to be obliged to say, however, that after the termination of the Presi- 
dential contest, there were no more favorable indications on the part 
of our Northern political allies. At the following session, commencing 
in December, 1848, they not only voted regularly for the Wilmot pro- 
viso, to exclude us from all share in the conquered territor}^, but when 
Mr. Gott's resolution was passed for the abolition of tlie slave trade in 
the District of Columbia, they were found voting for it. There was, 
as you well know, fellow-citizens, a meeting of the Southern members 
of Congress to devise means to protect their section. We were then 
met by the same sort of solicitation on the part of Northern men, and 
such Southern Whigs as sym})athized witli them. They declared that 
this movement was all a scheme of certain Democrats to break down 
General Taylor's administration before it came into power, and im- 
plored us ,to take no rash steps, but to trust to their good conduct at 
the proper time. Though I attached, myself, no weight to these decla- 
rations, yet I am satisfied that they served to sooth and quiet many 
Southern members. At the close of the session there was another vig- 
orous effort to settle the territorial question. I allude to Walker's 
amendment, a proposition of a Democratic Senator, which came to us 
from the other wing of the Capitol, where it had been adopted by a 
handsome vote. This was, in m}' judgment, a better settlement for the 
South than the Clayton Compromise, and all the Southern members 
made an honest effort to pass it. It met, however, the same kind of 
opposition from the body of the Northern Whigs, and a portion of 
the Democrats, and was defeated, as all similar movements had been. 
General Taylor's administration then came into power, and for 
myself, I felt that we had a right to require of the Northern Whigs some 
national and liberal line of policy as the price of an}^ further co-oper- 
ation in party movements. In the autumn of 1849, before the assem- 
i.ding of the new Congress, while traveling in the Northern States, I 
had opportunities for ascertaining something of the sentimenrin that 
section. I found, as was admitted in our first caucus during the dis- 
cussion of Mr. Toombs' resolution, that every Whig member of Con- 
Uiess from the free States had, prior to his election, during the canvass, 
been pledged to the support of the Wilmot proviso, and to the abo- 
lition of slavery in the District of Columbia. This had been done 
generally in the nominating conventions to enable them to beat the 
Cass men in some localities, who stood on his non-intervention plat- 



( 326 ) 

form, and also to win over the Abolition voters from the support of 
Van Buren or Hale. They were thus all pledged to a line of policy, 
in fact unconstitutional and destructive to the government. A por- 
tion of the Democratic members elect, also, stood upon the same prin- 
ciples, while many even of the non-intervention men, irritated by their 
defeat, had determined, with a view of punishing the South, to offer 
no resistance to these measures, but to oblige General Taylor to sign 
or veto the bills. Seeing that almost the entire North was hostile — ■ 
on my reaching the city early in November, I made such inquiries as 
were necessary to ascertain what were the views of the administration, 
and whether it was likely to make any affective resistence to this hos- 
tile line of policy. A majority of the cabinet were Wilmot proviso 
men, while part of the minority were indifferent. I came soon to the 
conclusion, from all the information that I could obtain, that if the 
proviso were passed, it would not be vetoed ; while, with respect to the 
abolition of slavery in the District, I could not learn that anything 
was determined on except to avoid the issue if possible. Seeing the 
dangers that threatened my section, I expressed my apprehensions to 
my colleague, Mr. Mangum, and to General Foote, of Mississippi, both 
of whom happened to be here at that time. Our letters then pub- 
lished were intended to put our countrymen on their guard, and pre- 
pare them for the struggle. When Congress assembled, it is well- 
known that the manifestations were such as to excite alarm in the 
country. Several weeks elapsed before the organization of the House 
was completed. Though some little impression had been made by our 
efforts, yet it appeared that a majority of about twenty votes were 
still for the Wilmot proviso, as indicated by the division on a propo- 
sition introduced by Mr. Root, of Ohio. Happening to obtain the 
floor at the opening of the debate on the President's Message, I, in my 
speech of tlie twenty-second of January, 1850, after surve^ung the 
ground which the Northern Whigs had occupied to a man in the pre- 
ceding Congress, declared, most emphatically, that the time for a 
change in tlieir line of policy had come, if they looked for further 
co-operation from our section. The first favorable indication occurred 
a few days afterwards, when the proposition of Mr, Root, coming up 
for final action, was defeated by a vote of the House. The incidents 
of that memorable session are too well known to require a review of 
them. After General Taylor's death, and the accession of Mr. Fill- 
more, the bills commonly called the Compromise Measures became 
laws. Being unwilling that the South sho.uld lose all the territory 
acquired from Mexico, I refused to vote for the bills disposing of it. 
The Fugitive Slave ^^aw being the compensation offered us for the 
other measures, I supported, because right in itself As the Constitu- 
tion had already provided that fugitives should be delivered to their 
owners, I was not willing for the sake of getting a new law on that 
subject, to consent to surrender to the North the whole of that terri- 
tory, it being sufficient to mak;e ten States as large as North Carolina. 
When, however, those measures had passed irrevocably, though the 
bargain had in my opinion been an unwise one for us, yet I resolved 
to insist upon the North carrying out the Fugitive Slave Law which 



(327) 

they had offered us in exchange for the territory given up to them, 
and which could not of course be gotten back. 

It ought not be forgotten, too, that even after they obtained the 
admission of California, and the passage of the other territorial meas- 
ures, out of more than eighty Whig members of Congress from the 
North, only three were willing to vote for the Fugitive Slave law, its 
enactment being mainly due to the support of the Northern Democracy 
and Southern members generally. The great body of the Northern 
Whigs still stood upon their anti-slavery ground. They still consti- 
tuted a formidable band, hostile to our section, determined to use all 
the powers within their reach for our injury, anxious to convert a gov- 
ernment formed for our protection into an engine of oppression, and 
to substitute for the limited Constitution of the United States a politi- 
cal S3^stem, that, in all time was to be our great enemy. Though 
repulsed and foiled in their efforts, they did not feel discomfitted, and 
were intent on recovering the vantage ground, which they had for a 
time lost. For myself, having already met trouble and difficulty 
enough from their efforts, I determined not to give them aid, but, on 
the contrary, to use my best exertions to prevent their getting into 
power again, until they abandoned those principles. Their first move- 
ment was the opening of a fierce war on those Northern men who had 
shown a disposition to do us justice, and had aided in the passage of 
the Fugitive Slave Act. It was their purpose to render such persons 
odious throughout the entire North, and build up, on their destruc- 
tion, a controlling political part}'. A part of their plan consisted in 
superseding such men as Fillmore and Webster with a presidential 
candidate of hostile views. Their thoughts were at once turned to 
General Scot', who, in accordance with their wishes, avoided commit- 
ting himself, publicly, in relation to any of tlie so-called compromise 
measures. Thougli urged again and again by Southern men to take 
a position, by letter or speech, he steadily refused to do it. It is 
known to you fellow citizens, that, in 1S48, I advocated his claims 
rather than General Taylor's. I need not recai)itulate my reasons for 
so doing it this time. Though neither he nor General Taylor had 
taken any distinct ground upon the slavery question as then pending, 
yet for party reasons I preferred General Scott to General Taylor, who 
had not been connected in any way with the action of the Wliig 
party. 

Soon after that contest, however, viz: in the summer of 1849, General 
Scott published his Canada letter, in which, while expressing his wish 
for the annexation of the British provinces, he went out of his way to 
declare his hostility to the acquisition of Mexican territory. This 
occurred in the height of the controversy about tlie territory already 
acquired. It was, in substance, saying to the North, I am for strength- 
ening you, but against the South. It must not be forgotten that the 
British possessions are larger than the whole United States, and yet 
while in favor of obtaining them he was against Southern acquisition, 
lest we might likewise be strengthened so as to be able to resist the 
North. If he had in express terms declared for the Wilmot proviso, 
he could not have exhibited himself as more sectional or more hostile 



(^ 328 ) 

to us. The great object of the freesoilers was, as you know, to prevent 
in the first place the extension of slavery, so that the number of slaves 
might after a time become so great as to force their emancipation, and, 
secondly, by the admission of a great many free States, in succession, 
to get power enough to bring the action of the Federal government to 
bear directly on our section. We, on the other hand, struggled to get 
u part at least of the conquered territory, so as to have a place to carry 
off the increase of our slaves, and prevent that social destruction 
whicii a general emanaipation would produce. We also felt it right 
that we too should, by the admission of new slave States, have power 
enough to defend ourselves in the government without being driven 
to a revolution. During this struggle on our part for right and justice, 
General Scott threw his weight into the scale against us. He was thus 
in the best position to be taken up by the anti-slavery parly as its 
candidate, and they, therefore, rallied with great zeal and unanimity 
to his support. With a view of counteracting this movement on their 
part, I prepared, for the consideration of the Congressional caucus, the 
following resolution, which was published in the Washington City 
papers of the 24th of April, five days after the meeting of the caucus: 

" Whereas, By the series of measures comraouly called the Compromise, 
California has been admitted into the Union as a State, the boundary of 
Texas has been settled, territorial governments have been established for 
Utah and New Mexico, and the slave trade in the District of Columbia has 
been abolished, and these several measures have been acquiesced in and car- 
ried into effect; and whereas resistance has been made in certain places to the 
execution of the Fugitive Slave law, and efforts are being made to effect its 
repeal, or render negative and null its provisions; therefore 

" Jiesolved, That in view of these things, and inasmuch as, under the Con- 
stitution of the United States, we are entitled to an efficient P\igitive Slave 
law, that we have a riglit to require that this latter law shall be sustained 
and carried out in good faith, and that any national convention nominating 
a presidential candidate sliall, in unequivocal and i)lain language, declare it 
to be the purpose of said convention faithfully to carry out this law, and that 
its nominee shall express his concurrence in such a proposition." 

Though at this time my proposition was regarded as an extreme 
one, yet before the convention assembled in the following June, such 
was seen to be the state of opinion in the Southern country, that the 
supporters of General Scott, contrary to their original intention, found 
themselves obliged to adopt a resolution endorsing the Fugitive Slave 
law. I required more, however, than this, viz: not only that the 
" convention should declare it to be its purpose faithfully to carry out 
this law," but also "that its nominee should express his concurrence 
in such a proposition." In other words, I rec^uired that General Scott, 
after his nomination, should in the words of my resolution, "in une- 
quivocal and plain language, declare ito be his purpose faithfully to 
carry out this law." This, however, he, after his nomination, took 
especial pains to avoid doing. His letter was so evasive and ecj[uivocal 
in its terms, as to make it manifest that he intended to give no such 
pledge. He "accepted the nomination with the resolutions annexed," 



(329) 

implying onl}' that he liked the nomination so much that he took it 
notwithstanding the objectionable resolutions fastened to it. Instead 
of sa^dng in "unequivocal and plain language," that he would carry 
out this law, he only referred to the past incidents of his life, which 
were very equivocal, or rather adverse to the carrying out of tli^se 
principles. 

■ I saw at once, on reading his letter, that he had not the slightest 
claims on me for support. While advocating the adoption of my reso- 
lution, in ni}^ remarks, published at the time referred to, I used the 
following language: 

''I say, then, tliat I cannot support the pending proposition to fix the time 
and place for holding a national convention. I will not in any mode give ray 
sanction to the calling of such a convention unconditionally. If I were to do 
so, I should feel myself bound in honor to support its nominee. I am, there- 
fore, willing to join in calling it only on conditions such as are expressed in 
part V)y my resolution. I am willing that those gentlemen who desire to do 
so shall hold a convention and present a nominee; but 1 shall then decide for 
myself whether I vote for that nominee or not. I mean to say that I shall 
not support the individual merely because he has been nominated by that 
convention. 

"The nomination will neither help nor hurt the person selected, in my judg- 
ment. I wish, therefore, to be understood as neither advocating nor opposing 
the calling of this convention, and do not mean to be bound ])y its action to 
go further than my sense of duty may prompt. I shall hereafter, upon a 
full view of all the circumstances, determine what I ought to do." 

You will thus see, fellow-citizens, that I, in view of all the difficulties 
of the position of things, left myself free to adopt whatever line of 
action a sense of duty might afterwards prompt me to take. Being in no 
respect bound by the action of the convention, I w-as just in the situa- 
tion after it had acted that I had been in before it assembled. But 
before that convention acted, was not the whole South opposed to 
General Scott ^ Who, I repeat, in our section was then for him? If 
others felt bound to surrender their convictions to the decision of the 
convention, I at least did not so feel, having reserved the right to accept 
or reject the nominee, as might best comport with my sense of duty. 
If the whole people of the South had like myself kept out of the con- 
vention, how many would have gone for Scott? I apptsal to you all 
to say if, prior to his nomination, it was not the general feeling that 
he ought not to be brought forward or suj^ported. 

On the appearance of General Scott's letter of acceptance, having 
thus waited to the last moment to allow him to set himself right on 
these great issues, I proposed to m}'- colleagues, Messrs. Outlaw^ and 
Caldwell, that we should join in a publication, stating the grounds of 
our opposition to him. This proposal was subsequently, on several 
occasions, renewed to them. On their declining it, I resolved to post- 
pone any publication on m}' part until I reached North Carolina, so 
as to be ready, before my constituents, to repel such attacks as I fore- 
saw would be made on me. This determination was communicated 
to many. My colleague, Mr. Caldwell, remembers, that on the last 
42 



( 330 ) 

day of the session when we shook hands, I authorized him to say that 
I should not only take the field in my district against General Scott, 
but that m}' reasons should also be published a sufficient time before 
the election to enable everybody to understand them. I may add that 
my opposition to General Scott was so constantly and public]}^ stated 
in conversations, that I have no reason to suppose that any member 
of Congress was ignorant of it. I also had occasion, in answer to* 
letters received, to write to that effect to many persons of both politi- 
cal parties in different parts of the State prior to our last August elec- 
tion. 

But, fellow-citizens, I had still other objections to the support of 
General Scott. He declares in his letter of acceptance that he will 
"neither countenance nor tolerate any sedition, disorder faction or 
resistance to the law or the Union, on an}'' pretext, in any part of the 
land." This declaration is so broad and so strange, that we might, per 
haps, regard it as a rhetorical flourish were it not part of a well-con- 
sidered and carefully prepared paper. It is inconsistent with every 
notion of the limitations of our constitutional system of government, 
and at war with every principle of the old Republican party. Mr. 
Webster, formerly identified with tlie Federal party, and noted for his 
efforts to strengthen the Government, nevertheless declared in a public 
address within the last two years, that if the North should break the 
bargain on its side, and fail to deliver up fugitives, that then the South 
would be released. Mr. Clay, whose " unio/iisni " was never cjuestioned, 
said in his speech to the Legislature of Kentucky, that if the govern- 
ment should attack the institution of slavery in the States, then he was 
for going out of the Union. The Union men of the South have every- 
where gone much further than this, and have boldly proclaimed, that 
if the late Compromise was violated materially, or even if the fugitive 
slave law sliould be repealed, they would sever ever}^ tie that bound 
them to the Union. This, you know, was the doctrine of the men 
most opposed to me in the last contest. It was, in truth, the universal 
doctrine of the South. In fact, no party, standing on different ground, 
could have lived for a month in any one of the Southern States. And 
yet General Scott, in the most decided terms, repudiates every thing- 
like this principle. In substance he says to the Union party of tlie 
South, that even if the fugitive slave law should be repealed, and 
you resist in any mode tliat repealing law, you shall be put down by 
force. 

To Mr. Webster he says, though the North should break the bargain 
on its part, yet I will compel the South to submit to that wrong, and 
hold you guilty of treason for advising differently. And when the 
majority of Congress have gone on and abolished slavery in the States, 
and put the negro on an equal footing with the white man, if Mr. 
Clay should call on his countrymen to protect their rights and liberty, 
he is to be executed as a traitor, because he resists the "law or the 
Union" upon such a '■'' pretext P Tiiis declaration of General Scott's is 
but a repetition of the old doctrine of submission to the divinity of 
rulers and governments. It is a doctrine which perished on the 
American continent on the fourth of July, 1776. It is not even recog- 



(331) 

nized in the limited monarchies of Europe, though it still maintains 
its sway under the despotisms of Asia. Why was General Scott 
induced to incorporate such sentiments in his letter, at war as they 
are with all the principles of the Republican party, and in fact with 
all just American notions? Those who advised him to it must have 
had a motive. There are, it is true, many persons scattered up and 
down the country, who, of extreme Federal opinions, are at all times 
struggling to have the present Constitution of tlie United States con- 
verted, practically, into an absolute government. More than their 
efforts, however, must have been at work. Is it not to be traced to the 
influence of the anti-slavery party of the North? These higher law 
men are struggling to obliterate all the limitations of the Constitution, 
and to absorb within the vortex of the Federal government all the 
rights of the States and the people. In this mode they hope to oppress 
the minority in the South, and carry out their purposes. Expecting 
themselves to have the control of the Government, they inculcate the 
doctrine of unconditional submission to whatever the majority of Con- 
gress may do. They have, with these objects, therefore, artfully con- 
trived to have such a sentiment incorporated in this letter, so that if 
General Scott had been elected they might have declared that the 
American people had sanctioned it, and thus greatly contributed to 
give it currency and strength. 

If, then, fellow-citizens, General Scott had been elected, what would 
have been the actual condition of things? In the first place, Messrs. 
Fillmore and Webster had been superseded in the convention, because 
of their support of the Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Law, and 
General Scott's election would have been regarded as evidence that the 
people approved the conduct of the Convention. It would also have 
been a condemnation of General Pierce, who had planted himself firmly 
on the same ground. The friends of the Compromise, of the Constitu- 
tion, and of the South, would have been defeated, trodden under foot, 
and politicall}'- buried. The anti-slavery party, headed by Mr. Seward, 
would have been triumphant. They would then have been the men 
of the day, and in "high feather," flushed with conquest, they would 
have taken possession of the government. They would, too, have 
claimed that the people had endorsed their consolidation doctrines, 
and thereby agreed to submit to whatever the government might choose 
to do. If any man supposes that, under these circumstances, they 
would not soon have been able to do mischief, then he is ignorant of 
the occurrences of the last few years. AVith the experience which I 
have had here, if I had aided them, I should have been faithless to 
3^our interests. 

It is my settled opinion, that if all tlie fiicts within my knowledge 
had been known to you generally, that General Scott would not have 
obtained five hundred votes in our district. But I attach no blame 
whatever to those who supported him. On the contrary, I have said 
that if I had been at home with no other means of information than 
the newspapers afforded, I might have been deceived possibly, and 
induced to sustain General Scott. So destitute of fairness and truth 
are a great many of the newspapers of the day, that it is impossible 



(332) 

frequently for men, however honest or intelligent, to ascertain the real 
condition of things. For example, suppose that during the last con- 
test for Congress in our district, an individual living at a distance had 
had no other means of arriving at tlie facts than such as the reading 
of the Messenger, the organ of my opponents, afforded him, he would 
very naturally have supposed that I was not only the worst and most 
dangerous man in the whole country, but also that I was the most 
unpopular, and would be the worst beaten man ever seen. Such a 
person would have been utterly amazed to learn, after the election, that 
I had carried a majority of every county and of almost every voting- 
precinct. 

Similar misrepresentations have been made with reference to the 
late presidential contest, and it is no wonder that honest and intelli- 
gent men were everywhere misled. I took no part in misleading you, 
but on the contrary gave you all frankly my views not only in rela- 
tion to the principles involved, but also as to the result. In ray con- 
versations and public speeches up to the very time of the election, I 
expressed the opinion that General Scott would not only be beaten by 
a larger vote than Van Buren was in 1840, but that he would only 
get three or four States. Some of his supporters, however, to break 
the overwhelming blow that has fallen on them, assert that General 
Pierce got all the Abolitionists of the North, and was thus so suc- 
cessful. The facts, however, do not bear out such an allegation. On 
the contrary, in those sections where the abolition feeling is strongest, 
General Scott made the best run. It was on the contrary where there 
is most conservative and liberal feeling, that Pierce made the greatest 
gains. Pie had a majority in the city of Boston, where the Whig can- 
didates have usually carried the day by several thousands. This city 
was the residence of one of the three Northern Whigs who voted for 
the Fugitive Slave law, and it was here that Mr. Webster's influence 
was greatest. In like manner in the conservative cities of New York 
and Philadelphia there were gains of some ten or fifteen thousand 
votes to the Democratic candidate; and as a general fact it maybe 
stated that in those sections of the country where there was least anti- 
slavery feeling. General Scott ran farthest behind the usual Whig 
strength. Why even in our congressional district, where there were 
twcilve thousand votes cast in August last, he received only four thou- 
sand six hundred, or but little over one-third. In the preceding presi- 
dential contest, the Whig candidate obtained more than four thousand 
majority, nearly as much as General Scott's whole vote. And you will 
bear me witness that those who voted for him, with but few exceptions, 
did it reluctantly, and from a disposition to support their party nomi- 
nee, against one of whom they knew little. That the great body of 
General Scott's supporters were actuated by tlie best and most patriotic 
motives no one can question, and a clearer understanding of his posi- 
tion would have induced them to abandon him. A few persons have 
shown a disposition to blame me because I |Jid not, in opposition to my 
knowledge of the f[icts, fall in and support him out of deference to the 
general feeling of the party, that did not take the same view. As, how- 
ever, I had been placed in a position to get a better knowledge of the 



(333) 

issues involved than many others, I should have been false to the 
trust reposed in me if I had so done. If a sentinel on the watch tower 
should perceive peril in the distance, which was unknown to his com- 
rades in the camp, ought he to seem to be ignorant of its approach 
because his fellows were so; or is it not his duty to give them warn- 
ing? Again, suppose you had employed me to manage an important 
law suit, to be tried in a distant court, and had advised me of your 
wishes as to the mode of the prosecution, and suppose that after reach- 
ing the place I should find upon a full understanding of all the facts 
of which in part you had not been apprised, that if I acted in 
accordance with your impressions, I should lose the case, but that I 
could gain it by taking a different course, ought I to pretend to be 
ignorant for the sake of acting in accordance with your suggestions, 
and thus lose the case, or gain it by taking such steps as you would 
yourself have directed if present, and acquainted with the facts? 
Ouglit I not to obtain a judgment for you? In the present instance, I 
stand U[)on this position. In the emergency just passed, the best result 
attainable has been reached. The defeat of General Scott, under the 
existing circumstances, accomplishes more to repress abolitionism, and 
advance sound republican principles, and a proper regard for the lim- 
itations of the Constitution, than any event in our time. 

The subject of the tariff has occupied a good deal of the public 
attention within the last few years. In September of 1850, a propo- 
sition to raise the scale of duty was brought forward by Mr. Vinton, 
of Ohio. While the increase was large on all things, it would have 
been i)articularly onerous on Iron. The tax on railroad bar would 
have been more than doubled, and the cost of the iron for the roads 
that North Carolina was then constructing would have been increased 
about five hundred thousand dollars. Nevertheless, the proposition 
came within a vote or two of being adopted. I opposed it with one 
other Whig member, viz: my colleague, the Hon. Joseph P. Caldwell. 

On that occasion we were denounced for going against the rest of 
our party, and the organ of the manufacturers in this city, and other 
papers of the same stamp, called upon the people of North Carolina 
to read us a lesson. Unfortunately, however, for their wishes, when 
the Legishiture met the next winter, it passed, with unexpected una- 
nimity, resolutions fully sustaining us, and protesting against any 
increase of protection to the mining and manufacturing interest. In 
the February following, on the floor of the House, while defending 
this line of policy. I went further and took ground for a repeal of the 
existing duty on railroad iron, and since then I have on all pro}>er 
occasions continued to offer arguments in support of that view. Instead 
of being censured by my constituents, as tliose interested in the con- 
tinuance of the tax have desired, I have the satisfaction of knowing 
that our Legislature, at its session recently closed, has passed, without 
a ^dissenting voice, a resolution in favor of making all railroad iron 
free of duty. Such, too, has been the progress of public opinion in 
this direction, that a proposition lias been introduced at the present 
session by a Northern Whig member, (Mr. Brooks, of New York,) in 
the following words: 



( 334 ) 

" Except so ranch of the message as relates to the tariff and revenue from 
cnstoms, which shall be referred to a select committee, with power to examine 
witnesses and to collect testimony here and elsewhere; and with instrnctions 
to repoi't as soon as possible npon the same, with a bill redncing the dnties on 
imports to such an amount as may be required for an economical administra- 
tion of the government." 

Here is a proposition to reduce the duties, thereby admitting that 
they are at present too high, and yet it received the sanction of my 
colleagues, and was even voted for by every Whig in the House, with 
the exception of some seven or eight. Upon this question, therefore, 
though denounced two years since for my course, I have been fully 

vindicated by the progress of events. 

-4: -jf * ***** 

Respectfully, your friend and fellow-citizen, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[After the overwhelming defeat of General Scott, there seemed to be quite a lull 
in" the slavery agitation. The people of the North generally saw that their section 
had gained sul:)stantially what was mosthnportant Iiy the compromise measures, and 
the politicians found that there was nothing to be made by further agitation at that 
time. The Abolitionists, however, did not relax their efforts to keep the country 
excited, and prosecuted industriously their efforts to carry away slave.-s, and to excite 
mob violence to prevent their return under the fugitive slave act. 

The calm did not endure long, and, in fact, only needed some practical issue to 
revive the storm with increased violence. An occasion was soon presented by the 
"Nebraska bill." During the session of 1852 and 1853, a bill came up in the House 
to create a new Territory west of the State of Missouri. A running debate sprang 
up, chiefly with reference to its interfering with the rights of the Indians in that 
territory. In fact, however, some Southern members, feeling that their section had 
not been well treated in the compromise measures, were reluctant to admit additional 
free Territories, and thus increase the preponderance of the North in Congress. 
This feeling was felt rather than expressed in words. During the progress of the 
debate, the Hon. David K. Oartter, then a Democratic member from Ohio, came across 
to my seat and said, "It seems to me that we are likely to get up the old excitement 
of the former times, and I am sorry to see it, for we have of late been getting on 
pleasantly." I answered that I had seen the same tendency, and was looking for an 
opportunity to stop the debate. Immediately thereafter I wrote and offered an amend- 
ment to cover the case and protect the rights of the Indians, which was adopted, (it 
was the same clause precisely which afterwards appeared in the bill that passed at 
the next session). This amendment was immediately accepted, and the bill was 
passed. It was, however, defeated in the Senate by the efforts chiefly of Senator 
iVtchison, of Missouri. 

At the succeeding session of Congress, the proposition was brought up again by 
Mr. Douglass, in the Senate, he being then chairman of the committee on Territories. 



( 335 ) 

As first presented, the bill did not provide in its terms for the abrogation of the old 
Missouri restriction of slavery to the line of 36 degrees, 30 minutes. A desire, how- 
ever, was expressed by many for its repeal, because it was inconsistent with the 
principle of non intervention established by the compromise of 1850. Of course 
Southern members were generally desirous of the repeal of the line of 36 degrees, 
30 minutes, but many doubted as to its policy, lest our friends in the North might 
thereby be weakened. For a time General Cass and Judge Douglass appeared to be 
undecided as to what ought to be done. 

While the matter was imdcr consideration. President Pierce one day wheu we 
were casually together, referring to the matter, said : "The granite Democracy of New 
Hampshire would like for such an issue to be presented, just to see how easily they 
would carry it." A circumstance had occurred a few months previous which I then 
thought had some influence in causing him to desire that such an issue should be 
raised. 

The letter which Secretary Guthrie had written to Bronson, in New York, instruc- 
ting him, while distributing the subordinate offices in the custom-house, in New York, 
to bestow part of them on the "free soil " or Van Buren wing of the party, had been 
published. As Bronson had been removed for not complying with these instructions, 
the "hard-shell" Democrats of the State were indignant, and their papers as well as 
the opposition press of the country, assailed the administation fiercely. As Presi- 
dent Pierce had always been lilieral to the South, and had been elected on high 
grounds of opposition to the abolition movement, he was evidently worried by these 
attacks. 

It struck me that he was especially desirous of an opportunity to show his hostility 
to the anti-slavery party. Hence when a number of the prominent Democratic Sen- 
ators went down one evening to consult him, he favored the movement and gave 
HF^urances of admiuistratixe support. 

The action of Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, seemed to complicate the question, 
lie oflFered an, amendment to the bill providing in express terms for the repeal of the 
line of 36 degrees, 3^ minutes. One evening after his amendment had been oflfered, 
though myself desirous of the repeal, yet doubting as to its policy, I called to see 
him, and found him and Senator .lames C. Jones, of Tennessee, together. On my 
stating that I feared that his movement might merely embarrass some of our friends 
in thp North, and cause them to be defeated by Free soilers or Abolitionists, he 
declared that he meant to press it because it was right in itself, and that he did not 
intend, after non-intervention had been adopted, to yield further to the wishes of 
the Northern Whigs. Mr. Jones was equally decided in his views. It was apparent 
that they, in common with many Southern Whigs, felt that they had, by too much 
yielding to the views of the Northern portion of the party, not only weakened them- 
selves at home, but in fact contributed to place their own section in jeopardy. It 
thus happened that the measure to repeal the Missouri compromise line, was not only 
acceptable to the majority of the Democratic party, but was also favored by a large 
portion of the Southern Whigs, who felt that consistency to their past action, and a 
proper regard for their own manhood, required them to insist that the policy whicii 
had been adopted in 1850 should be carried out on all subsequent occasioiis. 

Though I had not been originally a supporter of this policy, yet to aid its frienc- 
then, I made the following speech:] 



(336) 



SPEECH 

ON NEBRASKA AND KANSAS, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 4, 1854. 

The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, Mi, 
Clikgman said : 

Mr. Chairman : As no one has had the floor assigned to him, I will 
now occupy it with a view of saying something upon a question which 
has been already discussed at great length during the present session 
of Congress. 

I have heretofore sought an opportunity to present to this House 
certain points connected with the Nebraska bill. It is probable that I 
shall find an hour little time enough for my purpose, and therefore I 
say to the gentlemen around me that I hope the}'- will not interrupt 
me by asking permission to explain. I shall endeavor to do justice to 
every one, but should it be my misfortune to misrepresent any gentle- 
man with whose opinions I may come in collision, I hope that he v/ill 
avail himself of some other occasion to correct me. It has never been 
my misfortune, while I have occupied a seat u})on this floor, to make 
a single remark that any gentleman in the House thought offensive 
to iiim, nor have I ever been called upon to explain anything I have 
said in the course of debate. My purpose will .^e to-day to keep within 
due parliamentary bounds, and at the same time frankly and fairly to 
discuss the questions connected with this subject, upon what I under- 
stand to be their true merits. 

You have been told by the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Millson) 
that I had something to say upon the Nebraska territorial bill in the 
last Congress, when it was pending, not in the shape, however, in which 
it is now presented. After a speech on it, I offered an amendment, to 
protect the rights of the Indians, which was adopted, and I then voted 
for the bill. That amendment now stands in the present bill in the 
identical language in which it was offered by me. The fact that more 
than two-thirds of that Congress thought that a territorial organiza- 
tion was then necessary affords an additional reason, to my mind, w'hy 
we should at once organize a Territory there. I voted for the bill then 
— not liking it, however, and after trying to get it in a better shape — 
because there was nothing offensive in the bill itself. I greatly prefer 
the proposition which has come from the Senate. I could well support 
it as it is; but I shall vote, nevertheless, to strike out what is known 
as the Clayton amendment; not that I think it is wrong in theory, but 
because it will lead to no practical results, and was moved by an enemy 
of the bill merely to embarrass its friends in the North. As to the 
amendment of my colleague, (Senator Badger) I do not think that it 
changes the character of the original bill in any manner whatsoever. 
Be that as it may, as the bill now stands, it provides, in the clearest 
terms, that the people of that Territory shall not be prohibited, by any 
law formerly existing, from legislating as the Constitution of the United 



( 387 ) 

States permits them to do. It does not say that there shall be no law 
upon the subject of slavery. It merely says that it will not revive 
any former old law prohibiting or establishing it. In other words, 
tliat it will leave this Territory just as though there had never been 
in it any law upon the subject of slavery. 

This, in my judgment, is the best species of non-intervention. We 
say that the people of the territory may legislate as the Constitution of 
the United States permits them to do, without the intervention of 
Congressional law, French law, Spanish law, Mexican law, or Indian 
law. It makes the Territory like a sheet of blank paper, on which our 
citizens may write American constitutional law. It is, therefore, a 
better bill than the Utali and New Mexico bills of 1850; because those 
bills left the Mexican laws in force, by which slavery had been abolished 
and prohibited. It is a better bill than the Clayton compromise; 
because that compromise left those Mexican laws in force; and yet 
every Southern Democrat in both Houses of Congress, including Mr. 
Calhoun, supported that measure under the idea tliat the Constitution 
of the United States, jvoj'/'lo vigore, would override, annul, and super- 
sede those local laws. If they were right in tliis view, why then the 
more certainly would that Constitution be sufficient where there was 
no opposing law whatever. I am satisfied that if the Clayton compro- 
mise and the acts of 1850 had contained a repeal of the Mexican law, 
there would have been no opposition to them from the South. I s^, 
then, with the utmost confidence, that the Kansas and Nebraska bills 
are, for the South, the best measures yet presented. 

I shall not stop to answer the ingenious speech of the gentleman 
from Virginia, (Mr. Millson,) or that of the gentleman from Maryland, 
(Mr. Franklin.) The points ai'gued by them were very much dis- 
cussed six or seven years ago, by those of us who were then in Con- 
gress. I will only only say that the real question to be met is this: 
"Shall this territory be left open to every citizen of the United States, 
with the Constitution alone to control him, or shall the Wilmot pro- 
viso stand on it?" That is the point which gentlemen have to 
meet. They have to show to their constituencies, that the Wilmot 
proviso, now standing upon and controlling the territory, is better than 
having it open to everbody, wliether from the South or the North. I 
leave gentlemen to make the explanation to their constituents as they 
best can. It is enough for me to say that the arguments and excuses 
given by them are not, in my opinion, of the smallest weight to jus- 
tify opposition to the bill. 

But, sir, before noticing what I regard as the principal difficulty 
in the way, let me advert to one other striking point. I know that 
in 1850 certain persons professed to be in favor of non-intervention 
who were really opposed to that principle. The true friends of the 
system — those who had sustained the doctrine of General Cass — arc, I 
have no doubt, willing to carry it out to-day. But there were certain 
persons at that time entirely adverse to the principle in fact, but who, 
nevertheless, then gave it a hypocritical support, because they said 
that the settlement at that time, as proposed on non-intervention 
grounds, would operate injuriously to the Southern section. They 
43 



( 338 ) 

saw that it let in the whole of California down to the 32d° of north 
latitude as a free State, and that it threw the Sante Fe country out of 
Texas, a slave State, into New Mexico, a territory where the Mexican 
law had abolished slavery, and, in the opinion of Mr. Webster, Mr. 
Clay, and many other prominent men, was still in full force, and suf- 
ficient to keep out slavery : and also that the people there were, as for- 
eigners, understood to be hostile to the establishment of slavery in any 
way. In short, that, as these prominent gentlemen said, the North 
got the territory practically, while we of the South got only the prin- 
ciple of non-intervention for the future. This principle, highly val- 
uable in itself, they did not intend to apply to the organization of 
other territories. The conduct of these persons shows that they did 
not, in good faith, intend to adopt the system as a general one 
Hence, when afterwards this was declared to be a settlement in '''prin- 
ciple and substance," by Mr. Fillmore and the National Convention, 
these persons only pretended to agree to the declaration. Their con- 
duct now shows their insincerity, and the hollovvness of their profes- 
sions. 

But, Mr. Chairman, it is sometimes said by gentlemen that this 
Missouri compromise was originally advantageous to the South, and 
that now, when it has ceased to be so, we want to get clear of it. Let 
us look at this statement for one moment. 

•Missouri and Arkansas were admitted as slave States. Their extent 
was one hundred and seventeen thousand square miles. But, on the 
other hand, Iowa was admitted as a free State, and Minnesota was 
organized as a 'Jerritory, also with a restriction or prohibition of slav- 
ery. So also were Oregon and Washington. Now, sir, these three 
Territories and that State contain five hundred and thirty-four thous- 
and square miles in their area — nearly five times as much as the States 
of Missouri and Arkansas. Remember, too, that all this had been 
originally slave territory up to the date of the Missouri restriction. It 
appears, therefore, that while this policy of division was enforced by 
the Missouri line, the Northern section of the country acquired five 
times as much territory as the Southern. Minnesota and Iowa alone 
have nearl}^ twice the extent of the two slave States of Missouri and 
Arkansas, and Washington and Oregon have three times as much 
more. It must also be borne in mind that Mr. Buchanan, as Secre- 
tary of State, claimed, in the controversy with Great Britain, the Ore- 
gon territory, as well under the French and Spanish cessions, as by the 
right of discovery. 

As to how our title to it really accrued is not, however, material; 
because, under the policy of division by the Missouri line, this whole 
territor}' was given up by the South without a struggle, because it lay 
north of that line, and organized with the principle of restriction 
embodied in it. It thus will be seen that the North obtained five 
times as much of this territory as the South, while the policy of divis- 
ion was adhered to. But when the Mexican territory was acquired, 
b}'' running out this same line, the South would have fared better, and 
gotten, in feet, more than one-third of the territory. The Northern 
members of Congress, however, rejected the line, in spite of all our 



[ 839) 

attempts to get it adopted. Many of the Democratic members did so 
because they were in favor of the principle of non-intervention, as recom- 
mended bN'their candidate, General Cass ; while the Whigs resisted it 
because they were free-soilers, and in favor of the Wilmot proviso. In 
the end they carried the day, and broke down the policy of division; and 
non-intervention was established. Shall this policy now be carried 
out for the future; or is it to be set aside, as the former one was, when 
it would have been favorable to the South? This is the first occasion 
since 1850 for a trial of the matter. As to the territory of Washing- 
ton, organized by the last Congress, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Millson) has overlooked an important fact. Washington was a part of 
the Oregon territory; and the j^eople there had, in their Territorial 
Legislature, passed a law prohibiting slavery. This was done before 
Congress applied the Wilmot proviso to it. Had we, therefore, during 
the last Congress, repealed their laws already established, this would 
have been a direct violation of the principle on which the present 
measure rests, viz: the right of the people to regulate their own 
domestic matters. 

It appears, therefore, Mr. Chairman, that the Kansas and Nebraska 
bills afford the first proper occasion for carrying out the new prin- 
ciples adopted in 1850. 

I come now, Mr. Chairman, to what I consider the great obstacle to 
the passage of the bill. The main opposition to it does not arise from 
any of the sources as yet alluded to, but it comes from another 
quarter and a force which has been fighting the question under false 
colors and in disguise; and I now propose to unmask the character of 
that opposition. It seems to be well understood that every member of 
the old Whig party upon this floor from the North is an opponent of 
the bill. I understand that those gentlemen are making earnest 
appeals to Southern Whigs not to press this question on them, lest 
they should thereby break up the old Whig party. They are also 
deprecating agitation and insisting on quiet, &c. Those appeals are 
not made to me, Mr. Chairman, because for the last four or five j'^ears 
I have, for reasons which I will presently state, regarded myself as 
disconnected with that organization which these gentlemen control. 
In fact, I am rather out of all regular party organizations, and am 
regarded, I believe, as an independent. But, sir, to enable those mem- 
bers from the South who have less experience than myself to under- 
stand the subject properly, and to know how much weight they ought 
to attach to such declarations and appeals, I wish to recur to some 
things in the past, in no offensive spirit, but to make clear to every 
one the real princii)les upon which these gentlemen have been and are 
still acting. 

In 1840, the AVilmot proviso was brought forward; every Whig 
from the free States voted for it. It produced great excitement in the 
country, and came very near breaking up the party. They said, how- 
ever, to Southern Whigs, "Do not be alarmed about this proviso; we 
only mean to use it to put a stop to the Mexican war, and prevent the 
conquest of Mexico; and also, to split in two the Democratic party in 
New York, and cripple them in Pennsylvania, in Wilmot's district." 



( 340) 

I remember how they used to put their arms around their Southern 
friends in the kindest manner, and exclaimed, " My God, do you sup- 
pose that we mean to push this thing, and drive you all off from us? 
Do not fear; we shall not press it to a practical extreme." After the 
war terminated, the first attempt to settle the question was by the 
Clayton compromise. That was not entirely satisfactory to the South. 
But whether we should take it or not, de[)ended upon the chance there 
was of getting a better bill instead of it. The Northern Whigs, how- 
ever, in a body, assailed it in the fiercest manner. They said it was a 
cheat in itself; that it gave the South nothing practically, and was a 
mere scheme of the Democratic party to unite their forces and elecL 
General Cass. It was said that if it passed he would be elected, Gen- 
eral Taylor would be stricken down, and utterly repudiated by the 
North, under the fierce excitement which would be raised, and that, 
possibly, even the freesoilers would carry everything. I do not know 
that these declarations had any weight with those Southern gentlemen 
who went against the bill. I doubt, in fact, if they did ; but those 
who were here at that time know well the earnest appeals that were 
made to Southern men, and the promises held out of a better settlement 
at a future time. 

The bill was defeated, and the election went, as everybody expected 
it would. By the division of the Democrats in the State of New York, 
Cass lost its vote, and in the Wilmot district in Pennsylvania, and 
other places, there was defection enough to lose him that State; and 
General Taylor carried both those States, the loss of either of which 
would have been fatal to him. The Northern Whigs had therefore 
triumphed upon their extreme anti-slavery policy. We had a right 
to expect, therefore, that the}^ would at length be liberal towards us, 
and come to a fair adjustment of the pending issues. We met in 
December, after the presidential election, and, as a measure of con- 
ciliation and harmony, one of those gentlemen, Mr. Gott, of New 
York, introduced a bill, in most offensive language, to abolish the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia. All of those gentlemen voted for it, 
with the exception of Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, only, I believe. They 
passed it by a heavy majority, with the aid of some freesoil Democrats. 
The Southern members of both Houses of Congress thereupon held a 
meeting in the Senate chamber. The Northern Whigs, seeing the con- 
dition of things likely to be produced, and feeling some alarm, in that 
same soothing and conciliating manner for which they were dis- 
tinguished, said that the vote on Gott's resolution was a hasty and 
inconsiderate act, and that they would reconsider the resolution and 
reject it. They also said that the meetings which we were holding 
had been gotten up by General Foote, Mr. Calhoun, and other Demo- 
crats, with a covert design of breaking down General Taylor's admin- 
istration before it came into power, by exciting divisions between 
Northern and Southern Whigs, and that we ought to have more con- 
fidence in them, than such a movement implied, and that all diffi- 
culties could be arranged amicably. These declarations had no weight 
with me, as I had determined not to give my co-operation further, 
except on just principles. 



( 341 ) 

It was seen, however, that there was no occasion for action at that time 
on the part of the Southern members, and the excitement passed b3^ 

But, sir, the matter did not stop there. At that session many mem- 
bers of the Democratic i)arty in the Senate being still anxious to settle 
the question, Mr. Walker, a Senator from Wisconsin, with great liber- 
ality and manliness, brought forward a proposition as an amendment 
to the civil and diplomatic bill wliich would have settled the whole ques- 
tion fairly and on liberal terms. That proposition was adopted in the 
Senate, and came into this House, and was here supported by every 
Southern member of both parties, and also by many liberal Northern 
Democrats. It was ascertained that it was likely to pass, and thereupon 
the Northern Whigs, who ought rather to have desired to get the mat- 
ter settled so as to avoid embarrassment to Cleneral Taylor's incoming 
administration, made the strongest opposition to it. They entered 
into a combination with the Free Soilers and Abolitionists to defeat 
it; and when it was seen that we would probably carry it, they as they 
then said and afterwards boasted, had agreed that rather than a major- 
ity should be allowed to pass it, they would call the yeas and nays 
until the end of the session, and thus defeat all the appropriation bills. 
In this way some who were in favor of it were frightened, and induced 
to give way, so that the measure was lost. 

Then, sir, during the year following they kept this question before 
the people at (he North, and the result was that the Cass Democrats 
were beaten almost everywhere in that section of the country; and 
when we met at the commencement of the session of 1849-'50, it was 
ascertained that they had nearly ninety Whig members from the 
North, every man of whom was pledged to vote for the Wilmot proviso 
and for the abolition of slavery wherever Congress had jurisdiction, 
and particularly in the District of Columbia. I recollect very well that 
in our caucus upon a resolution offered by Mr. Toombs, Mr. Brooks, of 
New York, said that he and his colleague, Mr. Briggs, had determined 
not to vote for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia 
during the first session of that Congress. That was all we could get by 
way of concession from them. They would not vote for the abolition 
of slavery in the District of Columbia the first session, but they would 
make no such promise for the second session, and then stood read}^ to 
vote for the proviso. Several prominent gentlemen from Massachu- 
seets, Ohio, and other States, declared that the doctrine upon which 
they had been elected was that of hostility to slavery, and that they 
should vote for abolishing it wherever Congress had jurisdiction over 
the subject, and also to exclude it from all territory of the United 
States. To this doctrine there was no dissent from that section of the 
Union, though it was earnestly sought by Southern Whigs in the hope 
that they might find some ground for united action as a party. 

Such was the condition of things at the beginning of that Congress. 
The country was in a state of extreme peril. The whole Northern 
Whig party, in great force, and a number of Democrats, also upon the 
Free Soil platform, were ready to act, and many of the Cass men — for 
by that name the non-intervention men were designated — were dis- 
posed to get out of the way, and let the bills pass, and then see what 



(842) 

General Taylor would do with them. There was a large majority of 
the Congress thus pledged to push through these measures. 

I do not propose to take up the time of the committee with a rehear- 
sal of the events of that memorable session of lS49-'50. The majority 
were pledged to a line of policy that they dared not then carry out; 
and I do not hesitate to say boldly, that if that policy bad been carried 
out in practice, your government would not exist to-day, and ought 
not to have lived an hour. 

They perceived what the effect was likely to be, and the remarkable 
condition of things was exhibited of men pledged to a certain course 
of conduct which they saw would be destructive, and who were begging 
others to keep the question out of tlie way, and save them from the 
effect of their own princi[)les. General Taylor's administration and 
Cabinet, it is well known, could not get along upon tiie principles that 
had brought them into power, and were obliged to fall back upon 
their do-nothing policy. Why, even at the close of that session, after 
there had been a change of the administration — after Mr. Fillmore, 
who w^as favorable to a more liberal policy, came into power — after the 
admission of California as a free State, with the whole Pacific for a 
thousand iriles embraced in it — after the passage of that series of 
measures which Mr. Webster himself said, as to the territory gave the 
North everything, and to the South nothing but the Fugitive Slave 
law — out of more tlian eighty members we found only three Northern 
Whigs to vote for that act, and of those three, only my friend from 
Ohio (Mr. Taylor) has been returned by his party. Even after the 
bill was passed, there was an attempt to get up the cry of repeal under 
the lead of Senator Seward, and great agitation made all through the 
North, and a large majority of these men who had refused to vote for 
the law concurred in the clamor; there was a fierce struggle — a struggle 
to catch the anti-slavery feeling there and acquire party strength. I 
may add, even after that, it is well known that in the selection of can- 
didates for the Presidency they endeavored to throw out of the way, 
and set the seal of popular condemnation on Mr. Webster and Mr. 
Fillmore, because of their connection with these measures. These 
things have been well discussed, and are generally well understood by 
the country. 

Why, sir, we forced them with extreme difficulty in the convention 
to come up and adopt a platform to carry out these measures. About 
half of the Northern men voted against it, and a great many of the 
party organs denounced and repudiated the platform, and thereby, as 
was proven in the end, materially contributed to the overwhelming 
defeat of the candidate. 

1 have made this review, and stated these things, Mr. Chairman, to 
show that these Whig gentlemen from the North, as a party, have 
stood all the time on extreme anti-slavery ground; that they have all 
the while n^ade efforts to acquire party strength by appealing to the 
anti-slavery feeling of the North, and to Abolition sympathies. Now, 
what would you expect of them on this question? And what do you 
suppose they are going to do? Exactly what they have been doing 
for the last seven or eight years. These gentlemen are not opposing 



(343) 

this measure because it interferes with the Missouri compromise. 
Why, there is not one of them, probably, who ever alluded to that 
compromise, except in terms of denunciation, until the beginning of 
the present session. I might show 3'ou that the gentleman from Ver- 
mont (Mr. Meacham) who led off, some time since, against the Nebraska 
bill, in kSeptember, 1850, voted against the recognition of the Missouri 
line when moved by myself. I might have shown, and if I had 
obtained the floor when the gentleman took his seat I would have 
shown, that the State of Vermont has, through her representatives, 
repudiated every single congressional compromise ever made; not onlv 
nullifying the Fugitive Slave law of 1850, as well as the act of 1793, 
but all previous compromises. 

In 1833, when South Carolina had taken steps to nullif}^ the reve- 
nue laws, Mr. Clay's compromise bill was passed, bringing down the 
duties to twent}' per centum. Afterwards, to strengthen the measure 
when the land distribution was passed, on motion of Senator Berrien, 
of Georgia, it was provided that this distribution should stop if the 
duties should be raised above twenty per centum ; and yet this meas- 
ure of compromise, thus fortified, was against the vote of the whole 
South, both Whig and Democrat, repealed, and the land distribution 
also stopped by the vote of the members from Vermont and other 
Northern States. Why, sir, immediately after the passage of this very 
act of 1820, prohibiting slavery north of 3G° 30', and providing for the 
admission of Missouri as a slave State, a resolution, in the strongest 
terms, was adopted b}'- the Vermont Legislature, instructing their rep- 
resentatives not to let Missouri into the Union unless she abolished 
.slavery from within her limits. If it were a compromise act, as he 
alleged, then his own State violated it; and so did New York, and a 
number of other States ; and so did a large majority of the Northern 
members of Congress by refusing Missouri admission. No, sir; these 
gentlemen are now doing exactl}^ what the}' have been doing for many 
years past, viz: affiliating with Free-Soilers and Abolitionists, and 
making a great effort to obtain party strength in the North by assail- 
ing the Democrats, who are more liberal to us on these questions. 

Now, I do not desire to see this agitation kept up, for reasons which 
I will presently advert to; and I will submit the question to these gen- 
tlemen candidly, what have they gained by all this excitement, and 
all their denunciation of slavery? Of course they must have expected 
to lose the South. The wonder is that they have anybody there at all 
friendl}' to them. That it is otherwise onl}' shows great force of party 
ties and attachments. In my own State, originally one of the most 
decided Whig States in the Union, they have placed themselves in the 
minority. Kentucky has her twenty-five thousand majority brought 
down, I believe, to about nothing at all. Tennessee likewise, and 
indeed the whole South, has been pretty much thrown against them. 
What did they gain in the North? Ohio used to be a Whig State ; 
and I believe, at the last election, they were beaten sixty thousand 
votes. They were beaten everywhere in the North during the late 
presidential canvass, except in Massachusetts and Vermont; and they 
were weaker there than they were ten years ago, when they began the 



( 344 ) 

agitation against slavery. Tbey have been losing ground even at 
home, and why is it? I think I can tell you. It is because there is 
an equity in our claim to have a share of the benefits of this govern- 
ment that has made our cause strong in spite of all their efforts. We 
are a part of the American citizens who constitute the people of the 
Union. We pay taxes to support the government, and bear arms 
in time of war; and the at'empt to exclude us from the benefits of the 
government is so unjust, that they have been losing ground on that 
account. 

In s[)ite of all the appeals to fanaticism and denunciation of us and 
our social system in New England, old men remember, and young ones 
have read, that when George Washington went to Boston, in 1775, to 
help drive the British out of the city, he was not repudiated because 
he was a slaveholder. New Yorkers know tliat in the fight at Saratoga, 
which perhaps determined the result of the revolutionary struggle. 
Gates and Morgan were thought none the less worthy com [(anions of 
the brave men of the North because they were slaveholders. In the 
late war, Harrison and Scott, of Virginia, and Forsyth, of North Car- 
olina, and many others from the South, were on the boundary line 
with the patriotic men of !he North, defending the national territory. 
No man ever had a stronger hold on the masses of the North than 
Andrew Jackson. Neither he nor his great rival, Henry Clay, ever 
stood before a Northern audience, during the last ten years of their 
lives, without being welcomed with a shout of applause. The very many 
brave and gallant men who went from the free States into the Mexican 
war, will tell their neighbors that the Southern regiments who were 
with them, in that country, on the day of battle, stood by the Ameri- 
can colors. They have, therefore, been constantly losing ground, while 
the national men have been gaining on them, in spite of their alliance 
with the fanaticism and sectional pre^judices of the anti-slavery party. 
The issue is upon better footing today than^it has ever been placed 
upon, viz: the right of every community to regulate its own local 
matters without the intervention of those having no direct interest in 
the questions. 

It has been well said that there is a great resemblance between this 
issue and that involved in the struggle between the Colonies and Great 
Britain at the Declaration of Independence. There is however, one great 
and striking difference between the two cases. The Colonies in 1776 
denied the right of Great Britain to tax them to the smallest extent; 
but the people of Kansas and Nebraska say to Congress, "You may 
impose any amount of taxation upon us, and we will cheerfully pay it; 
you may make your own disposition of the public lands, lay off your 
military roads and post roads, and establish your forts and arsenals; 
you may subject us to the action of every law of Congress that the cit- 
izens of any one State in this Union is subject to'; but when you have 
done all that, when you have exhausted all your powers under the 
Constitution of the United States, then we ask the poor privilege of 
managing our local affairs according to our own wishes." And why 
should they not have? AVhy should Massachusetts or North Carolina 
control the people of those Territories? Sir, the question stands upon 



(345) 

the great republican right of ever}^ community to legislate for itself 
I know there are individuals who den}' that right. It is impossible to 
conceal the fact that there is a large party— I do not know whether I 
ought to call it a party, or whether it is a mere fragment of a party— in 
this country who have denied that right, and who, in the bottom of 
their hearts, do not believe that tlie people are capable of self-govern- 
ment. It is the same feeling that prompted the old sedition act; it is 
the same feeling whicli has thrown the influence of certain men against 
all questions of popular right. Now, it is very hard for me to desig- 
nate them. I do not know that I could properly call them the Anti- 
Slavery party, for that would not be a very accurate designation; nor 
the Federal party, even though it might do well to combine the two 
names. Perhaps I might refer to one of their leading organs witli 
advantage. 

The gentleman from Georgia, (Mr. Stephens) I remember, com- 
mented upon the course of the National IntelligeiiGer. Now, I think 
that journal is a faithful exponent of the party I allude to. Its regard 
for the Missouri compromise has been assumed only for the present 
occasion. I remember very well that during the struggle, up to 1850, 
that paper never came out for this Missouri line, although the South 
was battling for it for years; nor did it once assert our right to occupy 
the Territory in common with the people of the North, clear and in- 
disputable as that right was. Its whole weight and influence were 
covertly but adroitly thrown against us, and on the anti-slavery side. 
I never attributed this course to any love of liberty on the part of the 
conductors of that paper. On the contrary, in every struggle between 
liberty and despotism, it takes the side of despotism; in every contest 
between the United States and any foreign country, it takes ground 
against the United States. It would be marvelous if our government 
were, in fact, always wrong on every issue with a foreign nation. I 
presume, therefore, that it is because ours is the freest government 
upon earth that this journal always is found taking sides against it, 
and for our enemies. As to our internal policy, it is the faithful organ 
of that party which has labored industriously, as you and I well 
know, sir, to destroy all the limitations of the Federal Constitution, 
and substitute an absolute central government in its stead. These 
people have taken tlieir opinions mainly from the Tory press and the 
Tory party of England ; and those opinions happen to be anti-slavery, 
as well as anti-republican. They seem to desire no higher honor than 
to have the privilege of adopting and defending everything which 
comes from these sources. If any gentleman will take the trouble to 
examine some of the British anti-slavery journals, he will see the 
whole programme of our Abolition countrymen laid down there. They 
praise and defend the British policy in all things. A few years ago, 
for example. Great Britain voted $100,000,000 to liberate her negroes 
in Jamaica, and convert them into savages ; and since that event two 
millions of her white people at home have perished miserably by 
famine. It is demonstrable that if that sum had been applied prop- 
erly at home, every one of these unfortunate Irish men, women and 
children might have been saved. Even if she would devote the 
44 



(346) 

millions which are now expended annually for the benefit of the 
negroes in Africa, she would save the lives of her own white people. 
Still her policy in all things is defended by her allies here. 

Great Britain is a very sagacious Power, and not less selfish than 
sagacious. She knows well that in the future she has more to dread 
from the United States than from any other nation. She knows that 
our people are contesting with her now wherever the sea rolls, and 
wherever mind comes in contact with mind. But she is too cautious 
and far-sighted to assail us on a point where we are united. Hence she 
attacks us upon matters connected with slavery, and straightway you 
see the Abolition party, headed by such leaders as the gentleman from 
Ohio, (Mr. Giddings,) at once arising in her behalf, and making a ter- 
rific clamor throughout the land, and distracting the public mind and 
diverting it from the real issue. And you see that larger anti-slavery 
party, of which the Intelligencer is an organ, at once likewise taking 
sides with her upon all such questions. Even though they do not suc- 
ceed in effecting anything practically in the way of the abolition of 
slavery, or in bringing about a collision between different sections of 
country, yet they do a great deal for her, our rival. They keep us in 
an eternal agitation about this question of slavery to the neglect of great 
national interests. We do not put our public defences in a proper con- 
dition ; we fail to protect sufficiently the rights of our citizens abroad, 
whether in the fisheries of the northeast, in Central America, in Cuba, 
or elsewhere ; and therefore, I say, it is a wise as well as selfish policy 
on the part of Great Britain to keep us embroiled in such difliculties 
find discussions, so that her anti-slavery allies here, who are very faith- 
ful to her, can assist her in carrying out her policy. 

I desire, sir, that this question of the organization of the Territory 
of Nebraska shall be treated as a great American question, with no 
foreign influence brought to bear upon it. It will be found, I think, 
that I have done no injustice to any one in the course of remark in 
which I have indulged. Whoever is familiar with the political records 
of Congress and the country, which I have merely glanced at, will find 
my conclusions right. At any rate, I am confident that I shall be 
able to defend and maintain every single allegation made. Instead 
of meeting the Nebraska question on its merits, its opponents are 
heaping a great deal of denunciation on the friends of this bill, espe- 
cially Senator Douglas and President Pierce. A great flood of calumny 
has been o])ened upon Judge Douglas especially. The manner in 
which it has been manifested at certain points in the North is equally 
malicious, contemptible, cowardly, and mean ; and not less futile and 
harmless, than contemptible and mean. Neither the statesman of the 
Granite State, nor the young champion of the western Democracy, will 
ever be harmed by these assaults. He who is most thoroughly iden- 
tified with this groat popular American principle will be borne with 
it onward and upward in its career of triumph. In the discussion of 
this question I have been particularly struck by one fact, and that is, 
the unwillingnes of the opponents of the measure to meet the issue 
fairly. And hence they are falling back on the opinions of our an- 
cestors of 1775 and 1770 upon the question of slavery. They seem 



(347) 

anxious to get rid of the light of the niiieteentli century, and fall back 
upon the opinions of a former age, and of the men who lived when 
the government began its existence. 

Now, sir, it is universally admitted that the Constitution of the 
United States itself has nothing in it to support these anti-slavery 
views; on the contrary, every single provision in that instrument is 
pro-slavery — that is, for the protection, and defense, and increase of 
slavery. For example, one of them is that provision by which the 
slave trade was extended for twenty years, by which the Constitution 
expressly forbade Congress to put a stop to the trade for that period, and 
under which provision most of the negroes were brought into this 
country. That feature, it is well known, was adopted by the entire 
New England vote, in convention, with the aid of South Carolina and 
Georgia, against the other Southern and Middle States. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I admit that there are many 0{)inions against 
slavery expressed by individuals, such as Jefferson and others, as pri- 
vate persons, and which have been referred to in the discussion of this 
question. No man has more respect than I have for the opinions of 
the great men of that day on all subjects in which they were fully 
enlightened as to the facts. I hold their authority' on such questions 
as entitled to the greatest weight. But no man will pretend that the 
world has not made a prodigious advance in knowledge since their 
time. No sensible or enlightened man would go back to Benjamin 
Franklin, philosopher as he was, for information on scientific subjects, 
or adopt his views as to mechanics, electrical, or steam machinery, in 
preference to many men of our day. But among all the great advances 
that have been made in human science — whetlier you take geology, 
chemistry, or any otlier branch of knowledge — the greatest advance, 
perhaps, of all has been made in the science of government, and of the 
difference of the races of men and their adaptation to different social 
institutions. In the last century, sir, many of the leading men of the 
country looked, no doubt, upon the negro as in every respect like a 
white man, except that, by some strange freak of nature, the former 
had a black skin. That idea no longer prevails. The whole doctrine 
of negro equality with white men has been exploded in our day, not 
merely in the South, but throughout the United States. 

The people of Indiana and of Illinois have recently — and that, too, 
by an immense majority — decided against that equality; and have for- 
bidden any negro to enter into those States. In the State of Connec- 
ticut, too, when the proposition to enable negroes to vote was submitted 
to the people of that State a few years ago, the question was decided 
by a vote of nearly four to one against the negro ; and they were 
refused the privilege of voting merely because they v^ere^ negroes. New 
York has recently done the same thing. In fact, there is not a single 
free State, where the issue has been directly made upon the question of 
negro equality, that the mass of the people have not decided against 
it; nor can it be made without the same result. 

I happened, Mr. Chairman, to be in Connecticut when this vote was 
taken. I found that most of the newspapers seemed to be on the side 
of the negroes, and many of the literary men of the State, and they 



(848) 

anticipated a triumph; but when the votes of the people came to be 
counted, the result was altogether the other way. Why, Mr. Chairman, 
if all the literary men on the earth were to argue that the rays of the 
sun were the cause of darkness and cold, they never could convince 
the people who walk in this glorious sunshine that their theory was 
correct. They might persuade those who live down in the bowels of 
the earth — those who work in the coal mines of Great Britain all their 
lives. So, too, these Abolitionists many convince the people of Eng- 
land of the equality of the negro to the white man, because they do 
not seethe negro, and, in fact, know nothing about him; but our 
Americans, who have seen the specimens, cannot be thus humbugged. 

I say, sir, that the idea of negro equality no longer exists in the 
United States as a fact. I care nothing about theories, nor how this 
difference is accounted for. Some of our Abolition brethren, being 
soft-headed, and easily deluded on all subjects, for example, say that 
the negro is different from the white man because of the effect of cli- 
mate, manner of life, and want of opportunity to become civilized, &c. 
All history and fact is at war with these ideas. The negro has been 
placed by Providence in that country and climate most favorable to 
his health and well-being; and his opportunities for acquiring the 
advantages of early civilization were vastly greater than those of the 
Northern barbarians, from whom we have ourselves .descended. They 
were, more than four thousand years ago, in contact with the Egyp- 
tians, the most enlightened nation of antiquity. Afterwards the Car- 
thagenians, a highly intelligent Phoenician colony of white men, the 
first people of their day, overran all Northern Africa, and brought some 
of the negro races into subjection. Then came the great Roman 
Empire, which civilized everything else it touched, but made ]\o 
impression upon the negroes. The Saracens, too, the first people of 
the middle ages, who gave light to the Western European nations, and 
who extended their conquests south of the Great Desert, left the negroes 
where they found them — savages. 

A second class of inquirers as to the cause of the difference between 
negroes and white men take a Biblical view of the Cjuestion, and sup- 
pose that, inasmuch as the descendants of one man were, by a judg- 
ment of the Almighty, sentenced to be shives forever, it is but 
reasonable and natural that there should be distinguishing outward 
marks in their organization. 

The third class, embracing almost all the great men of science, hold 
that the negro race is S[)eeifically different from the white race. I care 
not what view gentlemen take, but the fact maybe assumed as settled 
in the American mind, that there is a material difference between the 
negro and the white man. As Canning said, facts are stubborn things. 
There is a higher laic, but it is the law of nature. When God 
Almighty implants His characteristics upon natural objects, man can- 
not change them. If a political system is in accordance with those 
natural laws, it will be successful. The American Constitution has 
been well framed in accordance with tliose principles. But, on the 
other hand, in Mexico and Jamaica, and in other places, where they 



(349) 

bave undertaken to upset the law of Providence, and to establish the 
doctrine of negro equalit}'-, nothing but mischief has been produced. 

Since the time of our revolutionary fathers, these great discussions, 
supported by innumerable facts, have shaken the human mind to its 
center, and brought it to a conclusion of which tiiey did not dream. 
Hence their opinions are worth very little in this debate. Let no man, 
Mr. Chairman, suppose such topics as I am now discussing are abstrac- 
tions, having no real weight. These considerations, more or less, are 
constantly acting on the minds of men, and, in fact, are dail}^ referred 
to by the opponents of the measure under examination. In another 
point of view, too, there has been a great change of opinion during 
the present age. I speak with reference to the profitableness of slave 
labor, and the prosperity of slaveholding countries. 

The free States have fifty-four majority upon this floor. Under the 
old apportionment they had fifty-one, a gain of three members over 
the South in ten years. Sir, during that time there have been about 
two millions of foreigners added to the population of this country by 
immigration, and nearly every one of these })ersons have settled in 
the free States. If, therefore, their increase by natural means had 
been proportionate to that of the South, they onght to have made a 
gain of some twenty members instead of three, especially when the 
admission of California is considered. 

I refer to this huitter to show that our })opulatio]i has increased 
more rapidly than even that of the free States, great and prosperous 
as the}' are. That population, also, is a productive one. We make 
abundant provision for ourselves as resi)ects agricultural products gen- 
erally, and are able to send a large amount of grain, &c., out of our 
territory, both to the North and to foreigners. In addition to all this, 
our production of cotton in some years amounts to nearly $150,000,000 
worth; the sugar and molasses to nearly f 20,000,000; and the tobacco, 
rice, &c., to a large amount. We thus furnish two-thirds of the exports 
to foreign countries, giving thereby employment to the immense ship- 
ping interest of the Union, and enabling our tonnage already to equal 
that of Great britain. Do not these facts prove that our system of 
industry is one that is eminently productive? 

Gentlemen may tell me that one cannot get as much work out of a 
slave as a free man would perform. I grant it. But they forget that 
among a free population a large proportion are non- producers all their 
lives, and that even the working classes are unemployed a great part 
of their time; and the young persons of both sexes are usually unem- 
ployed, and, in fact, an expense, until they attain maturity. On the 
contrary, the negroes are almost all kept constantly at work in some 
way, and tjie consecjuence is, that these three millions of slaves actually 
produce more, probably, than the same number of free persons in any 
other section of the country. I do not mention these things to claim 
superiority for the South over the North, bat merely to establish the 
equality of my section. You will find, too, that we have just as many 
churches as the free States have, and fewer pauj^ers and criminals than 
any countiy upon earth perhaps can show. These things are stated 
to prove that our system is a prosperous one, and that there is no 



( 850 ) 

reason why this government should be arrayed against it. I point to 
the fact, also, that the negroes are, whether considered physicall}'-, intel- 
lectuall}^ socially, or morally, superior to any other portion of their 
race upon the globe, whether in a state of freedom or slavery. 

These are views of which little or nothing was known fifty years 
ago; but they are taking deep hold upon the public mind now, and 
statesmen and wise men will look at things as they are, and ponder 
well before they act in opposition to the evidences of their senses and 
their reason. The ways of Providence are wiser than the imaginations 
of men, and let us therefore follow where the facts seem to point. No 
man knows as yet what we shall be led to ; but the opinion of the 
country is very different now from what it was fifty years ago ; and 
what it will be a century hence, can any man assume to say ? No^ 
sir; but the wise man will be disposed to let these things alone ; he will 
rather permit these matters work their own way in due time. Under 
the influence of excited feelings, and in pursuit of a single idea, men are 
sometimes carried to great extremes. For example many of the Northern 
people insist that slavery must not be extended, but that it must be con- 
fined to its present limits. It will thus happen, say they, that after a time 
for want of room, the slave population will no longer increase; and per- 
haps the low price of labor, and the want of means of subsistence, will 
induce the owners to liberate their slaves. They say that the condi- 
tion of the present slave States will be like that of portions of Europe^ 
where tbe population cannot increase, and where a bare subsistence 
can be afforded to the people in ordinary years, so that in a scarce 
year large numbers are swept away by famine. In this way, they 
argue the increase of slaves could be prevented. A not less effectual 
mode, however, would be to put to death the infant negroes from 
time to time. This, too, would be more humane, probably, than the 
other process, as the amount of general misery produced by a condi- 
tion of things similar to that in Ireland during the years of famine^ 
would doubtless greatly exceed that caused by the mode suggested. 
Intelligent men at the North of course know that the Southern States 
would not consent to submit to such a line of policy, and that the 
attempt to enforce it will merel}' overthrow the government. In fact, 
the amount of property now held in slaves, and the interests connec- 
ted with it are strong enough to protect themselves. In France and 
other European countries, the strongest political systems that men 
could invent have been overthrown, from time to time, but the rights of 
property have withstood all the shocks of revolutions. So the interests 
which the South has will be strong enough to protect themselves — 
always, I hope, in the Union, but certainly out of it, should it ever 
become necessary. These considerations need not, hswever, enter 
largely into the present discussion. We stand on our constitutional 
rights, and the justice, both political and moral, of the proposition 
that every community ought to be allowed to regulate its own domes- 
tic matters. Adopt this cardinal line of policy, and the country will 
no more be disturbed with agitations about slavery. 

Mr. Chairman, there was considerable excitement produced in the 
House yesterday by a resolution which the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. 



\ 351 ) 

Campbell) offered in reference to the annextion of Canada. This 
movement will enable us to illustrate the practical effect of the pending- 
measure. If the old system of bringing the powers of the government 
into collision with the rights of the South, by restricting slavery, is to 
prevail, as Canada would strengthen the Northern movement against 
us, we should be opposed to its annexation. But sup[)0se we adopt the 
opposite line of policy, and settle down upon the doctrine that every 
communit}' sliall regulate its own local and domestic aflixirs. Why, 
sir, the proposition for the annexation of Canada would be looked upon 
simply as a national question, as one in which the North and South 
were equally interested, and the advantages and disadvantages of the 
measures would be fairl}' considered by both sections. I am not by 
any means })repared to say that the tin:ie will not come when Canada, 
as well as many other provinces, will be annexed to the United States. 
I agree with the gentleman from Virginia, (Mr. Millson) that there is 
danger of too rapid expansion of our territory. I believe in the law of 
progress, but there may be such a tiling as too high a rate of speed for 
safety. I admit all this, but must tell him that it is idle to attempt to 
prevent a forward movement. He miglit justas well strive to dam up 
the waters of that Niagara to which he alluded as prevent the expansion 
of our Republic. We must act wisely, however, and place ourselves in 
a condition to be benefited and not injured by these coming acquisitions 
of territory. 

What ought we to do? Allow every portion of the country to regu- 
late its own affairs, whether States or Territories, and turn our atten- 
tion to those groat national questions upon wliicli the interests of the 
country demand our action. But, in justice to myself, I perhaps ought 
to say that while I would not hurry expansion of territory, yet neither 
am I prepared to say that the infant does not now live who may see 
all the f'ountry between Cape Horn and the Polar ocean of the north 
united in one empire. I do not say that it will be so, nor am I pre- 
pared to say to what extent this confederation of republics may be 
carried. We are in the midst of the" grandest experiment humanity 
has ever seen; and if we do our part wisel}^, I have n© doubt but tliat, 
under the favor of Providence, a fortunate result will be attained. 

I have witnessed, Mr. Chairman, several of those anti-slaver}^ excite- 
ments, and I have observed that when they are first gotten up their 
[tower seems to be the greatest. The Abolitionists are well organized; 
the}' throw out their publications all over the country at once, with- 
out being over-scnipulous as to the truth and justice of their state- 
ments; and hence they hurry away the minds of the community for 
a season. Truth cannot travel as fast as falsehood, but in the end 
always overtakes her. Hence, after a full discussion and a fair under- 
standing of the subject, the excitement is shorn of its strength, and 
dies out before the intelligence of the people. For example, when the 
question of the annexation of Texas first came up, the cry was raised 
tliat the vvliole North was dead against it, and tliat any who advocated 
it would be instantly crushed. Even after the matter had been adopted 
by the Democratic party in its convention in Baltimore on Mr. Polk's 
nomination, and even as late as September, the convention in New 



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York which nominated Silas Wright for Governor, passed a resolution 
against the annexation of Texas, though agreeing to support Mr. 
Polk nevertheless; and, in fact, when Congress met, even after the 
election, there was great opposition among Democratic members, but 
ultimately the bod}- of these gentlemen, with the aid of some few 
Southern Whigs came up and passed it. I have yet to learn that a 
single one of them was beaten on that ground. I remember, also, 
when the Wilmot proviso was first brought forward, there were only 
six or seven gentlemen from the North who voted against it. We 
were told to take our last look of those gentlemen; that they went 
home to their political graves. Such was the language used then; but 
one of the preachers who pronounced their funeral sermon on more 
than one occasion was left at home himself; while the opponents of the 
Wilmot proviso came up here thicker than ever. In a little while that 
proviso found none so poor as to do it reverence. 

When the Fugitive Slave law passsed I was told by gentlemen who 
were favorable to it tliat it was producing an intensity of feeling in 
the North of which we could have no idea. They said that the whole 
North was against it; and in the South many were alarmed at the 
agitation, and some of the States passed resolutions in the strongest 
terms for the enforcement of the law. I do not know that anybody 
has been defeated because of that bill in the North where a fight was 
firmly made on the issue. How will it be on this occasion? Some 
gentlemen will go forward and tell their constituents that a great 
wrong has been done to the North. What is it? Why, that Congress 
has actually had the unparalleled — I will not say impudence, but want 
of justice— to allow the people of Kansas and Nebraska to legislate for 
themselves in local matters. Now, Mr. Chairman, do you think that 
it will produce any excitement when the question is understood? Not 
a bit of it. When the idea is first thrown out that we are repealing 
the Missouri compromise to let slavery into that Territory, there will 
be the greatest excitement ; but as the question comes to be canvassed 
and examined from time to time, the result will be that the issue will 
take a hold on the popular mind which none can resist. 

I have never in my life been afraid, when I felt that I was right, to 
make an issue and debate a question before the people. I recollect 
very well that some years ago I was the only man from the South who 
voted for the reception of abolition petitions, and against the twenty- 
first rule. There was a very intense excitement in my part of the 
country against their rece[)tion ; but when I came to discuss and exam- 
ine the question, I was fully sustained by the people. 

And here let me say that I do not deprecate debate on the subject of 
slavery. On the contrary, my own opinion is that a calm, temperate 
discussion of all these questions in Congress is positively beneficial. 
When I came here, ten years ago, it was the fashion for Southern men 
to say that "you cannot venture to discuss slavery. It must not be 
talked about in Congress." The consequence was the Abolitionists 
were rampant when they saw that we seemed to be afraid of them, and 
they pressed upon us, getting stronger and stronger all the time as we 
appeared to retreat and quail before them. The most cowardly cur, if 



(853) 

you run from him, will follow and bite you. I took at once a differ- 
ent view, and was disposed to meet the question; taking the ground 
calmly then that we had better confront our enemies face to face. The 
great discussion which has since occurred, I am quite confident, has 
strengthened our position all through the North. Liberal men in that 
section now find less difficulty in sustaining themselves The North- 
ern and the Southern people agree better and better as they come to 
understand each other's views. 

There is a great amount of common sense and good feeling among 
our people everywhere; and the discussion, sir, of all these questions 
has been productive of nothing but benefit. Remember that we can- 
not prevent the Abolitionists debating these things. They will go all 
through the North, and spread their pamphlets far and near. They 
will have their preachers and lecturers. I have had a great many .ser- 
mons sent to me lately. They have two striking qualities — rhetoric 
and ignorance; and the very fact that so irany of these Northern 
preachers — I mean Abolition preachers — have neglected their holy 
calling to embark in politics, is probably the reason why infidelity is 
making such a great headway among the Abolitionists. I am very 
sorry to see it. [Laughter.] I think that it would be better for them 
to discuss religion. Unless they cease we shall be compelled to send 
missionaries among them. [Laughter.] I read many of their papers, 
and, in common with the rest of the community, am shocked with 
witnessing their infidelity and blasphemy. They will eternally keep 
up this discussion about slaver3^ Then why ncrt let it be calmly and 
temperately debated, since it is necessarily before us in connection 
with this bill, and will be brought up occasionally by kindred topics? 

As my time has expired, I omit some points that I had intended to 
discuss, and I shall now take my seat^thanking the committee for the 
attention with which they have heard me. 

NOTE. 

The passage of the Kansas and Nebraska act, produced great excitement, 
especially in the North. Inflammatory meetings were held, and bodies of men were 
armed and sent into the territory, even while the measure was under consideration, 
in order that they might control it, and prevent its ever becoming a slave State. 
When emigrants from Missouri and other Southern States went in, collisions 
occurred, which added to the high political excitement. Even in the South, there 
was division; many of the Whigs, though in 1850, they had all been in favor of the 
principle, that no law of Congress should be allowed to interfere with the right of 
the inhabitants of every territory to establish or reject slavery now changed their 
ground. From the influence of party feelirigs, they sympathised so much with their 
associates in the North, that such men as Messrs. Badger and Kerr were censured by 
their former admirers. The state of feeling thus produced in the country both North 
and South, may be understood perhaps from the reading of the letter given below : 

AsHEvnxE, Sep. 21, 1854. 

Gentlemen : On my return, after an absence of some days, I found 
your letter of the 2d instant, inviting me to he present at a dinner to be 
given "irrespective of partv" to the Hon. John Kerr, as a compliment to 
45 



(354) 

him for his course, especially with reference to the Nebraska bill of the 
last session of Congress. Entertaining the highest respect personally 
for your distinguished representative, and heartily approving his course 
on the occasion referred to, if my engagements pern)itted it would give 
me the greatest pleasure to accept the invitation. The importance of the 
Kansas and Nebraska act cannot he overrated. It removed from the 
statute book an odious and unjust discrimination which had existed there 
for nearly half a century. That restriction, a mark of inferiority, was 
degrading to the South, and as such, ought never to have been originally 
submitted to by her. In consequence, however, of the want either of 
wisdom, or manliness and courage on the part of the men of 1820, there 
rested the highest obligation upon every right thinking and right feeling 
son of the South, to avail himself of the first fair opportunity to place 
his section back again where it orginally stood, on an equal footing with 
the North. This result has now been accomplished, and we stand as 
equals in the Union with our brethren of the North. All who have 
taken a part in tbis transaction, may well feel proud of the accomplish- 
ment. I declare to .you, gentlemen, that after a Congressional service 
of nearly ten years, I would ratlier that every vote of mine on all other 
question should be obliterated from the Journals, than be deprived of 
my participation in that one act. 

As a citizen of this great Republic, I would rather that my name 
should go down to posterity associated with those of the true and brave 
men who carried this measure, than to have had part in all the legisla- 
tion that has been transacted in my time. Whether the territorj^ of 
Kansas will ever constitute a slaveholding State, as it inevitably would 
if left to voluntary settlement and the usual course of things, or whether 
the extraordinary combination between northern capitalists and abolition 
associations shall prevent this, will not, in my judgment, materially 
diminish tlie importance of the measure. The Federal Government has 
done us justice, however much reason we may have to complain of the 
acts of a portion of the nortliern people. We now stand in a position 
of equality, and we owe it to those who are to come after us, and to the 
cause of truth, justice and of political liberty in all time to come, never 
to surrender that favorable position. No consideration, either pecuniary 
or political, no love of temporary ease and quiet, can atone for such a 
sacrifice, because no people have ever been permanently prosperous, who 
have admitted their inferiority to others, or consented to be degraded to 
a state of political vassalage. A sense of sectional or national ignomity 
unmans and in time destroys any people. To this, like other law of 
Providence, no exception can be found in history. We must, therefore, 
I repeat, maintain our present position at any cost. Any one of our 
citizens who is capable of doubting on such a point, ought to be regarded 
as unfit to occupy any public station. 

This great measure was not passed without extreme difficulty. In 
fact I know of no parliamentary act that has been carried in the face of 
such formidable, obstinate, and unsci'upulous opposition. 

Those Southern representatives who contributed by their eflforts to its 
success, are worthy of great praise, but no applause which language can 
express, is adequate to do justice to the representatives from the North 
who stood by us in the struggle. These gentlemen, against all calcula- 



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tions of personal or political advantacre, in defiance of the opposition of 
sectional y^rejndices, of abolition clamor, and all the dennnciations of 
fanaticism, with unwavering firmness, and a courage never surpassed for 
its magnaniniit_y, came into the struggle and carried the measure trium- 
phantly. They well knew tiie peril they incurred, but their manly love 
of right and justice caused them to disregard all selfish considerations. 
Those who saw that they would l)e put down for the time, felt confident, 
nevertheless, that in the end truth would triumph over all opposition, 
and full -justice be done to their motives. 

We ought, therefore, to lose no proper occasion for bestowing merited 
commendation on these men. Those individuals in tlie South who assail 
their motives, ought to be covered with contempt and execration as deep 
as that which would bury him who should sneer at the motives of 
Lafayette or Kosciusko, and charge that they marched under the banners 
of Washington merely from a selfish hope of reward. 

Undoubtedly the original yielding, renders it more difficult now to 
defend our just rights, but I do dot despair at all of our being able, by 
proper efforts, to maintain our position in the Union, provided our 
resolution to do so is sufficiently decidedcd and general. 

Permit me in conclusion, gentlemen, to express my grateful sense of 
the complimentary manner in which you have been pleased to refer to 
my own course in this connexion. 

With sentiments of the highest i-egard, your obedient servent, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

There can be ho question but that the passage of this act with the attending 
circumstances, added to the strength of the anti-slavery party of the North. Still 
the effect thus really produced by the measure, was not so great as it appeared. 
Though there was apparent quiet then, it was because the North as a section, had 
nothing really to complain of, on account of the measures of 1850. But any prac- 
tical issue, which might have the appearance of strengthening the South, would at 
once have created excitement. So strong and settled had become the opposition 
to permitting the South to acquire any additional territory, that might tend to 
strengthen it, for purposes of defence, that any such measure would have arrayed 
the majority of the Northern people against it. 

In addition to this, however, the repeal of the restriction of 36 degrees 30 
minutes, had the appearance of extending slavery into territory previously made free, 
and also violating an old compromise. This added strength to the former purpose, 
to resist the extension of slavery and caused the Freesoilers an 1 Abolitionists to 
obtain such power as to enable them to beat so many of the Democratic candidates, 
as to give them the control of the succeeding House of Representatives. 

They were greatly aided, however, by a new and singular movement in American 
politics, that took place about this time. It was the creation of the "American" 
or "Know-Nothing" party. This organization suddenly acquired great strength, 
especially in the North. Not only did the Whigs generally enter it, but the Demo- 
crats who were hostile to the Kansas and Nebraska act, also joined it in large num- 
bers. Though they would not generally have been willing to join an organization 
called Whig, to which they had been opposed, yet they were not adverse to uniting 
in making a new party. After the overthrow and destruction of the new organiation, 
having already been separated from the Democracy, they were more easily induced 



(356) 

to assist in forming soon afterwards another new party which adopted the name of 
Republican. 

Not only did this result flow from the Know-Nothiug organization, but it seems 
to have been the original parent of the "Wide Awakes" of the Lincoln campaign, 
"Loyal Leagues" of a later period, and of those other organizations popularly 
designated as "Kuklux" There can be no doubt but that such secret polit- 
ical organizations have exerted a demoralizing and mischievous effect on the 
country. 



[So extraordinary has been the advance in the amount paid as compensation to 
officers, and such has been the general increase in the public expenditures of the 
country, that the following remarks may be of some interest, as tending to show the 
beginnings of the movement :] 

REMARKS 

ON THE PUBLIC EXPENDITURES, MADE IN THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 17, 1854. 

Mr. Clingman said : Mr. Speaker: I hope the gentleman from Ten- 
nessee will withdraw his demand for the previous question for one mo- 
ment. I promise to renew it. 

Mr. Jones. I withdraw the demand for the previous question. 

Mr. Clingman. I desire to sa_y only a word or two to the House in 
re£:;ard to this bill. It inaj be unpleasant to o-eiitlemen who have made 
up tlieir mind to vote for it to hear any remarks; but I do not think 
that the bill in all its features is thoroughly understood. I promise not 
to be tedious, as I desire only to make a few suggestions. The proposi- 
tion now undei' consideration is a very important one, as it increases, by 
several hundi'ed thousand dollars, the annual expenses of the Govern- 
ment ; and I think that we may be likely to hurry it through without 
due examination, and without giving members an opportunity for that 
discussi(jn and consideration which all bills making appropriations of 
money ought to receive. It is a bill which appropriates a large sum of 
money; but the |)rincipal effect is more objectionable than the waste of 
money even. We have lately got into great dilhculty in regard to the 
subject of the appointment of clerks. It is well known that there is an 
immense rush here for offices. Every man here is pressed from time to 
time with ap])lications from their constituents to get them situations in 
the different offices of the Government. 

I believe that the action of Congress during the last session has con- 
tributed very much to produce this evil of which I speak. Everybody 
admits that the fact of there being so much office-seeking under the Gov- 
ernment is a very serious vice. There is a very great desire to get into 
public offices, and there is a constantly increasing number of men who 
are seeking for them. The result is, that whenever we have a State or 
a presidential election, there is an immense excitement in the country ; 



(357) 

and Congress ought not to legislate in any way that will tend to increase 
this mischief. 

At tlie last session of Congress there was a proposition brought in to 
increase the salaries of the clerks. The eight-hundred-dollar clerks were 
raised up to a salary of one thousand dollars, and all classes of these 
employees were moved forward to a higher rate of compensation. 

During the discussion upon that occasion I remember very well that 
an eloquent friend of mine [Mr. Gentry, of Tennessee,] made a hand- 
some plea in favor of the increase. He told us ot a young man in the 
practice of the law in his o^'n State wdio came here and obtained a 
thousand-dollai- clerkship. lie brought his wife and tamilj- here, and 
lie found that he could not conveniently sustain himself upon his salary. 
He presented the case very feelingly and ably, and the consequence was 
that the House went forward, and passed a bill for the increased com- 
pensation. The present bill i-aises the salaries of the lower class of clerks 
to twelve liundred dollars per year ; the second class to fourteen hun- 
dred, and so on. It also gives back-pay, additional, to the clerks that 
have already been in office. It thus appears that there is a greater de- 
mand for an increased salarj^ than before. Let us see how that is brought 
al>out. Here, for instance, is a young man practicing law in Tennessee. 
He is informed that men obtain at Washington what he regards as a 
high salary. He makes an application through his friends, obtains an 
appointment to an office in one of the Departments, and comes on here 
and enters upon the performance of its duties. He finds that his ex- 
]tenses are considerable; holds office for a few years, and then probably 
leaves it, or is tui'ned out under an incoming Administration. In nine- 
teen out of twenty such cases the individual goes home insolvent, or 
nearly so — a great many of them, perhaps, having contracted bad habits 
from their associations in Washington. 

Now, if the public service required this, I would vote the money, and 
let the men be sacrificed, just as men are sacrificed in battle, or die by 
disease contracted upon the frontiers. But if the yuibb'c service does not 
demand it, there is no just ])rinci]»le which requires that we should give 
it. The rule which an individual adopts for his government in like 
cases, is to give that sum which will secure a competent -man to perform 
the duties which he desires. I know of no other principle which the 
Government should adopt for the guidance of its action. 

If you want a mei'e copying clerk, any man who can keep a country 
school in your distj-ict or mine, or who would be employed as a mer- 
chant's clerk to keep books, is competent for that purpose. Such indi- 
viduals are glad to get three or four hundred dollars a year in the coun- 
try ; and we have such individuals constantly coming to us to obtain 
employment in directing speeches and documents, or to seek places as 
messengers in the Departments, at that rate of pay. I remember a case 
which will, perhaps, illustrate the principle. I will state it. At the 
beginning of this session a lady came to me with a letter of introduction, 
who stated to me that she had a husband who was a messenger in one 
of the Departments, and got tliirty dollars per month; that his health 
was very bad, and that he was barely able to discharge his duties. He 
was not able to attend to any other sort of business when not perform- 
ing office duty, and he had half a dozen children. Slie was veiw anxious 



(358) 

to s.et oneof hei* sons in here as a page in the House. I called upon the 
Doorkeeper of the House, who is a very polite and obliging man, and 
asked him to give this boy a place. He intbrraed me that he could not, 
because several members of Congress had brouglit on young boys from 
the distant States for the purpose of getting these situations for them. 
The conclusion I came to was, that the pages are paid so well as to make 
it worth while to bring on these boys from the distant parts of the Union, 
to get these appointments. Our pages receive two dollars a day, regu- 
lar compensation. During the last session of Congress, by a two-thirds 
vote, but against mine, the House agreed 4o give the pages a sum in ad- 
dition as an extra allowance, amounting to considerable more than their 
salary for the session, making their pay as much as four or five dollars a 
day; and the result is, as I stated, that boys are brought on from the 
remote States, and secure places, while those in the city who need the 
pay as much are excluded. This is an abuse which I have constantly 
opposed, but unsuccessfully heretofore. In fact, at each session I am in 
a minority of less than one-third, generous members giving away the 
public money to their favorites here. 

I want to call the attention of the House to another fact. There are 
persons in this city who are glad to be employed as copying clerks, at a 
dollar a day. But when you raise ithe salary of copying clerks to $1,000 
a year, you throw these persons out of empluyment. And how ? Why, 
as soon as the salaries are raised, and the fact becomes known abroad, 
young politicians from North Carolina, from Tennessee, and from the 
remote States, will come here and apply for the places. They are young 
men out of business, or, perhaps, a little above their business, and hav- 
ing political influence, they secure the situations; and those here in the 
city are displaced. This is the way the system M'orks; while you take 
more and more from your Treasury, you get no better officers, but, in 
fact, worse ones. 

Suppose you were to pay the workmen employed upon the wings of 
your Capitol ten dollars a day; the consequence would be that men 
would come on here from every quarter of the Union and apply for situ- 
ations. Political influence would be brought into requisition, and the 
Superintendent" would probably finally be obliged to distribute his work- 
men among the different States, as the cadets and midshipmen are now 
distributed. As it is now, the ordinary price is paid, and proper work- 
men are obtained, without any noise being made abroad in reference to it. 

I know we are called upon to be liberal to these clerks, and I should 
be very glad to be so ; I have several friends from my section of country 
among them. But it is not our own money tliat we are voting away. 
We only act as the trustees of the people ; and I am not going to vote 
to raise the compensation of these clerks still higher when hundreds of 
my constituents work quite as hard at home, and do not receive more 
than fifty or seventy-five cents a day for it. Suppose, Mr. Speaker, I 
should say to you, I am directed by one of my constituents to get some 
work done for him ; I am his agent merely, or trustee ; I can get it done 
for $100, but there is a good clever fellow who wants rae to give him 
S200 as a favor to do it ; and I should tell you, further, my constituent 
is a poor man but an honest one, and a hard worker, with a large family 
that he is trying to educate, and he finds its very difficult to get along 



(359) 

and maintain them. You would at once tell me that, as an honest man, 
I had no ri^ht to give away $100 of his money merely to gratify one of 
m}' favorites ; that I would act fraudulently as a trustee, if 1 were to 
spend his money thus. Suppose, sir, I should go to one of my constitu- 
ents who was plowing in his field, and say to him, Why do you not hire 
hands at seventy five cents or a dollar per day, to help you tend more 
land and make a bigger crop ? He will tell me, " I cannot afford to give 
aTiybody seventy-five cents per day. I cannot give fifty cents per day 
in cash to hire a hand. I am not, perhaps, clearing that amount my- 
self.'' If I should say to him, " Now, my friend, you are taxed on your 
plow, on your salt, your sugar, the woolen goods you wear, or the blank- 
ets you buv to protect your family from the inclemency of the season. 
Are you willing to pay an additional tax ; you who are making from 
fifty to seventy-five cents per day ? Are you willing to pay an addition- 
al tax to enable some others to get more than four or five dollars per 
day, who are not working near as hard as you do ?" He will tell me in- 
stantly, " No!" Have I the right to take that man's money who pays it 
for public purposes, for necessary expenses, and appropriate it to an un- 
called for increase of salary, merely to gratify my favorites? The moment 
I go beyond the line of what is just and proper; the moment I deter- 
mine to give a man more than his work is worth — for the value of ever}' 
man is regulated by the demand for his services — I cannot say that I do 
what my duty calls for. If I employ a man to do my private work, and 
I pay him more than he gets from anybody else, I pay him well. The 
fact that 3'ou can get men to come fi^rward and seek these ofiices, if you 
were to put them down to $500 or |1G00, is evident that they are doing 
better here, in their opinion, than anywhere else. 

The only rule for Congress to adopt is the one which I have laid down, 
and that is, to pay what is necessary to obtain competent men. I admit, 
for higher officers, your Commissioner of Pensions and others, who are 
required to understand the laws of the countrj^, and ought to have judi- 
cial minds, you ought to pay more. The rule we have to adopt is to pay 
what will seeure the necessary work. Do as any honest trustee would 
do with a trust fund. Where he has to spend any money for his trustors, 
he will spend only as much as will get the work done. If you, Mr. 
Speaker, and I were employed to have a house built for a man, we would 
not think it right to pay twice as much as we could get the work well 
done for merely to gratify those in our employ. 

And I will beg, Mr. Speaker, that gentlemen will bear one thing in 
mind. There has not been a single instance, during mj' time in Con- 
gress, where the emoluments of an oflice have been reduced. I do not 
speak of petty post offices. We reduced the salaries there, indirectly, 
by reducing the rates of postage. You will find that whenever you move 
a man forward — I do not care what office he fills — the result is that he 
stands where he is advanced. This matter of salaries is an advancing 
tide ; it never recedes. 

Again : You cannot satisfy the wants of these gentlemen. Suppose 
you raise tlie clerkships up to $8,000 per year, the amount now given 
cabinet officers. Well, the result will be that men who have been Gov- 
ernors in their own States, or Senators of the United States, understand- 
ing that they can get $8,000 per year, will come here, and such men will 



(360) 

fill the clerkships. They will crowd out those individuals who would 
be glad to do the work at lower rates ; and after they have held those 
offices ten years, they will petition, if they think that we will listen to 
their petitions. They will tell ns that house rent is high ; that they are 
bound to entertain their friends when they come here ; that it cost a 
great deal to keep up carriages, and rent pews in fashionable churches, 
and that they must have an increase to $10,000 per year. 

There is not a man in the country who is making money as fast as he 
wants to, and there is not a man holding office who gets as much as lie 
Avould like to get; and if you will ask him whether he ought to have an 
advance, he will answer, "Yes, I can turn tiiis money to a good 
account." 

Gentlemen talk to me about liberality. I can very well understand 
the liberality of the man who puts his hand into his own pocket and 
pays out his own mone_y. 1 do not call it liberality to misuse the money 
of other people, and give it away to favorites. This money is raised by 
taxation. It is taken from an unwilling, reluctant community. They 
are willing to pay as much as we need, and nothing more. And I do 
not feel that I can, with any sort of propriety, insist on taxing my con- 
stituents, the majority (jf whom cannot make one dollar per day, to en- 
able others to get a much larger sum, when we can secure the services 
for less. 

I want to present tliese considerations to the House. I intend, at some 
time during this session, if I get the opportunity on one of the appro- 
priation bills, to say something about the character of the public expen- 
ditures of the country. They vastly exceed those of any other country 
in the world. You may go to London, Paris, or anywhere else, and you 
will not find the public expenditures there like the amount paid for the 
same service here. I know that the rate of wages is higher in tlie Uni- 
ted States, but it is no reason why we should pa}^ ten times as much for 
the same service as others do, when we can get it for the half only. 

Tills is a thankless duty which I am discharging, sir. We are sur- 
rounded by a constant pressure. It is a very popular thing to be gener- 
ous, and vote the peo])le's money out of the Treasury. If that money 
came into the Treasury just as the water comes into the Potomac, I 
should be glad to hand it about to everybody around us ; but when I 
remember that it comes there by taxation upon the people, I do not feel 
at liberty to vote it away unnecessarily. 

Sir, this government of the United States is rapidly becoming the 
most extravagant in the world ; in tact, it is the most extravagant for its 
service, and it will soon become the most profligate and wasteful, for it 
is the nature of all vices growing out of expenditures to increase rapidly. 
Everybody knows that the decay of the Roman Republic arose from the 
fact, that in its latter days the public men gave away the money, lands, 
and other public property for votes to make themselves popular, and to 
be elected consuls and pro-consuls ; but they were in the habit of giving 
it to the soldiers, and there was, therefore, some excuse for it ; they said 
these men had defended the country. We, however, are making our- 
selves popular by voting money and lands to men engaged in the civil 
service, or who have performed no service at all. The result is that 
things are moving on at railroad speed. We are constantly increasing 



(361) 

our expenditures with less service. It is a notorious fact tliat we do not 
get better service now, in the Departments, than we got twenty or thirty 
years ago, when we did not spend one half as much. I beg gentlemen 
to look at this matter. If you will put down these expenses to tjie lowest 
rate that will pay and secure competent men, that is all thej have a right 
to expect you to do. When you have done that, 3^ou will not have this 
great pressure for office ; yon will not have the whole country seeking 
office, and this perpetual struggle in ])olitics. You will get the work 
well done, and remember, too, that by tempting tliese men to qnit their 
usual business, and come on here to seek office, you do them a great deal 
more luischief than good. 

I have made these remarks, Mr. Speaker, mei'ely to indicate the grounds 
of my opposition to this bill. I should like to gratify these clerks, and 
pages, and others, by voting them money ; but I do not feel that I can 
do it with justice to my constituents. I would much ratlier avoid 
making this opposition. I would much rather that some other gentle- 
man should come out and present the points of objection to these meas- 
ures. I think this bill ought to be referred to the Committee of the 
Whole on the state of the Union, and be discussed there, as all money 
bills should be discussed. If its principles will stand discussion, then 
let it pass, and I will acquiesce in it. I do not believe they will stand 
discussion. I do not believe there is a congressional district in the Union 
where these expenditures, which we are nuxking all from good feeling, 
and to gratify persons around us, would be justified by the people; be- 
cause it can be shown that you do not benefit the donees at all, taking 
them as a class ; you may benefit an individual here and there, but j'ou 
do more mischief than good to them as a class. I hope this matter will 
be well understood by the people, and that each gentlemen who votes 
for the bill may have to justify his vote before the people. If so, I do 
not think the next Congress will press through such a bill as this with- 
out discussion, and under the gag of the previous question, as they are 
determined to do this, if they can. I consider myself fortunate in getting 
this opportunity to put in a few words; and I promise that this shall 
not be the last that gentlemen are to hear from me on this question ; 
for I mean that the country shall understand it fully. 

I now, in accordance with my agreement with the gentleman from 
Tennessee, demand the ]U"evious question. I hope that the motion to 
reconsider will prevail, and that the bill will be referred to the Commit- 
tee of the Whole on the state of the Union, there to be considered upon 
its merits. 



NOTE. 

Many persons do not know how much they are taxed on account of 
the expenditures of the Federal Government. The amount now col- 
lected by reason of the tariff, or indirect taxes, is about sixty millions 
of dollars per year. If this sum be divided by two hundred and thirty- 
four, the'number of congressional districts, it gives as the share ])aid by 
each districts, two hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars. North ( aro 
lina has eight districts and a fraction over. She therefore pays, as a 

46 



(362) 

State, of this tax, upwards of two millions annually. There were, how- 
ever, some ninety thousand votes given at the last State election. It is 
therefore true, that the share of each voter in the State, upon an average, 
is twenty-two dollars a piece. This is not an unfair mode of stating the 
case, because the women and children, in fact, contribute little to the 
payment of the taxes. Such a county as Rutherford or Wilkes, there- 
fore, pays about $40,000 in each year. The actual loss is. in fact, much 
more to the people; for this sum of $60,000,000 which the Government 
gets is, in the first place, paid by the importing merchants, and they 
charore a profit on the duty paid, as well as on the original cost of the 
goods, when they sell to the wholesale dealer ; and he, likewise, puts on 
a large profit when he sells to the retail merchant; and this retail mer- 
chant usually adds not less than fifty per cent, when he sells to the con- 
sumer. It is probable, therefore, that the people of the county pay, in 
truth, twice as much as 1 have stated, in addition, too, to the very large 
sum paid by way of protection to the home manufacturer, which, on 
many classes of articles, exceeds greatly what the Government collects 
itself. 

If this sum seems very large, it must be remembered that from one 
fourth to a third of all the money paid to merchants, and for articles 
brought from abroad, is to be charged to this tariff system. Many men 
pay hundreds of dollars per year in this way, when thier purchases are 
large without being aware of the extent to which they are taxed. It is 
probable that the people of North Carolina pay in this way to the Gen- 
eral Government nearly ten times as much as they pay to support their 
State government. 

If tliis money were colle(;ted as direct taxes are, by the sheriffs, it 
Would be complained of in many instances, and members of Congress 
would perhaps be censured when they were found wasting money on their 
favorites, in cases where it was not called for by the public interest, but 
was wastefully and mischievously spent. 

While I am willing to vote all the money that the public service re- 
quires, I am opposed to donations and largesses to favorites. My policy 
has been toj-educe, if possible, the expenses of the Government, so tliat 
we may diminish the taxes on the people. I wish to reduce the tariff 
generally, if possible; Init if this cannot be done, at least to repeal the 
duties on railroad iron, so as to enable the country to make improve- 
ments, and thus put the farmers and all others on a better footing, so 
that they can pay the taxes with less difficulty. Salt, sugar probably, 
and other necessaries, have strong claims to be released from duties. If 
these subjects were properly understood by the people of the country, 
they would, in my opinion, compel ther members of Congress and Sen 
ators to lop off wasteful expenditures, and reduce the taxes. 



(363) 

* 

[The following speech is presented, because some of the then belligerents are 
engaged in a war on the same theatre, and on grounds not materially diiferent from 
those on which the former war was waged. And also because we have ourselves 
had since then a large experience of the effect of great expenditures of money for 
war purposes, and are, therefore, in a condition to judge all the better of the effect 
of such expenditures on the interests of humanity.] 

SPEECH 

IN FAVOR OF A PROPOSITION FOR MEDIATION IN THE 
EASTERN WAR, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESEN- 
TATIVES, JANUARY 8, 1855. 

The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, Mr. 
Clingman said : 

Mr. Chairman: I will ask the attention of the committee, not to 
the subject upon which my friend from South Carolina (Mr. Keitt) 
has so eloquently addressed the committee, for I should not like to 
attempt to glean a field which he has reaj:)ed so carefully, but to 
another question which has some intrinsic merits, and which I hope 
to be able to present in the interval that will elapse prior to the usual 
time of adjournment. 

It will be recollected that, at an early day of this session, I offered a 
proposition, suggesting the propriety of this government offering its 
mediation to the belligerent Powers of Europe. The following is the 
proposition, as modified by me: 

A Joint Resolution requesting the President to tender the mediation of the 
United States to the Powers engaged in the Eastern war. 

Whereas, the people of the United States see, with regret, that several of 
the great Powers of Enrope are engaged in a war which threatens to be of 
long duration, and disastrous in its conseqnences to the industrial and social 
interests of a large portion of the civilized world ; and being, under the favor 
of Providence, in the full enjoyment of the blessings of peace, distant from 
the theater of conflict, discon-nected with the causes of quarrel between the 
parties belligerent, and, as a nation, having no immediate interest in the con- 
test, and no purpose to interfere, forci])ly or in an unwelcome manner, never- 
theless are of o])inion that the controversy may be susceptible of pacific 
adjustment, through the intervention of a neutral and friendly Power; 
therefore 

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That we would view with satis- 
faction a tender to the belligerents of the mediation of the United States, 
y)rovided it should be in accordance with the President's views of the public 
interests. 

My object at that time was simply to get the subject before the Com- 
mittee on Foreign Affairs, of which I am known to be a member, 
leaving it to the discretion of that committee to act upon it as to them 



( 364 ) 

might seem best. Since then, there h'M been a great deal of comment 
upon that subject by the press-generally. The proposition lias been 
assailed in some quarters, and defended with ability in others. The 
course of remark has been such, that I desire to make a short expla- 
nation of my views in relation to this subject, and of the reasons 
which governed me in making the movement. 

I do not propose to speak as a member of the Committee on Foreign 
Afi'airs iiow, because I have not the right, under the rules of the House, 
to refer to anything which occurs in the committee until it shall think 
proper to make a report to the House. I desire only to meet some of 
the objections which doubtless induced gentlemen to vote against the 
proposition at the time when it was tirst moved. 

It is said, in the first phice, by objectors, to be an intervention on 
our i)art with the affairs of foreign governments. If it be infervention, 
it is precisely ^uc/i intervention as this government has practiced from 
its foundation. Every minister sent abroad is sent to influence the 
action of some foreign government, and to induce it so to regulate 
its action as to benefit, and not injure us. In point of fact, we have 
ourselves had several instances of mediation submitted to us, which 
we luive accepted, thereby admitting that it was not such intervention 
as gentlemen would now exclude us from offering to foreign govern- 
ments. Our ministers are instructed to interfere with the action of 
foreign governments, so far as it may affect us, and no further; and 
hence they are not expected to look lo the iiiternal action of any gov- 
ernment, but merely to its external relations, because in these latter 
we ourselves have an interest. For example, if the Emperor of Russia 
should deprive us of the trade of tlie ports of tlie Black Sea, or Baltic, 
our minister, Mr. Seymour, would be instructed to remonstrate against 
it. If that interruption should arise from a conflict between Russia 
and some other Power, wliy then we might appeal to both of the bel- 
ligerent parties. In this particular instance, our trade is interrupted 
in those seas by the existing war, and our government has a right to 
relieve us from such an injury, if it is practicable for it to do so. 

A gentleman over the way .said, the other day, when I first .-rought 
up this proposition, that he hoped that the war between Russia and 
the allied Powers would continue for fifty years. I take it for granted 
that he did not express this benevolent wish [a laugh] from any opin- 
ion that it was anvantageous to the parties engage'l in it; but he must 
have made the remark to carry the impression that the United States 
Would derive some advantage from it. It will be coni.'eded, on all 
hands, that it will give us no glory and no additional territory. If we 
are to be benefited, therefore, it must be in a pecuniary point of view, 
either by increasing our exports, that is to say, enhancing the value of 
what we have to sell, or diminishing the price of what we have to 
import or purchase. 

Let us examine this matter briefly, at the outset of the argument, 
first with reference to what we have to sell. 

Our principle article of export is cotton; and now, in the face of two 
short crops, it is down to less than eight cents. My own opinion is, 
and I say it with deference to the opinions of other gentlemen, that 



( 365) 

but for the war, cotton would probably be now worth eleven or twelve 
cents, as it was in 1850 and 1851. I say so, because the recent supplies 
do not, I think, bear a greater ratio to the present deniand of the 
world than did the crops in the years referred to. If so, the loss on 
this article alone, will make a difference of at least forty millions of 
dollars in tiie value of our exports; and, in point of fact, I have no 
doubt that the war makes a difference of from twenty-five to forty mil- 
lions in this respect alone, besides losses in tobacco and other articles. 
Gentlemen will say to me, perhaps, that breadstuffs are increasing in 
value, but they forget that the drought of last year so destroyed the 
crops in most of the grain-growing States, that we shall have nothing 
to spare for the next twelve n:ionths. We have then to take the chances 
of deriving an advantage two years hence; if we should then happen 
to have produce to sell, as a set-off to the large and heavy losses that 
are falling on us. 

But, in point of fact, it is the ability of Euro{)e to purchase that 
determines the demand tor and price of breadstuffs. I took occasion 
some years ago to examine the reports made by committees of the 
British Parliament in relation to the condition of the laboring popu- 
lation of England. It appeared that during periods of distress and 
famine the laboring classes were compelled to give up in succession, as 
the pressure increased, such articles as were not indispensable; and 
that, for example, they first gave up sugar, then meat, after using it 
for a time only once a week, then bread, and finally they relied upon 
the potato alone. It a})peared, from the investigation made at that 
time, that there was adisj)Osition to consume a large amount of provis- 
ions if tliey had had the ability to obtain them. Necessity was the 
sole measure of their purchases. If the war goes on in Europe, with 
its heavy taxation diminishing tlie wealth and means of the people 
there, I doubt very much whether they will have the ability, to any 
great extent, to pay for our produce, even if we should have a large 
surplus. But even if it should prove otherwise, it is not probable that 
this additional demand will make up for the lo.ss upon the other arti- 
cles to which I have alluded. 

Again, si)ecie is being rapidly drawn abroad from this country to 
satisfy the demands of the belligerents. There is, by consequence, an 
extraordinary pressure in the eastern cities, and extending itself into 
the interior of the country, so as seriously to cripple all business trans- 
actions, and produce heavy losses to the community. Stocks of all 
kinds have also greatly fallen in value, to the detriment of many of 
the States, as well as of individuals. Besides all this, the shipping 
interest has suft'ered, and is suffering extremely. 

During the great wars in Napoleon's time, owing to the fact that 
Great Britain was excluded from most of the continental ports, our 
ships had the carrying trade. Such, however, is not now the case; but 
there are, in fact, nearly as many foreign ships engaged in trade as 
before the war began, ov,'ing to the fact that Russia has not the means of 
molesting the allies on the sea. In fact, while the number of carriers 
remains about the same, the absolute value of freights is likely to be 
diminished, so that really the whole shipping interest is languishing, 



( 366 ) 

and the value of ships is twenty or thirty per cent, less than it was a 
few months ago. A gentleman behind me, from the maritime region, 
says that it has diminished fifty per cent. Doubtless he is right on 
this point. 

It is also probable, if the war continues for years, we shall suffer as 
purchasers. It is true that certain kinds of manufactures seem to have 
fallen in value. It must be remembered, however, that the present 
supply was created for a state of peace. One of the effects of a fall of 
prices is to diminish the amount produced. It will also follow, that if 
laborers are forced to serve in the armies— and on this account, and 
also by reason of exorbitant taxation, manufacturing establishments 
are broken up — there must be a corresponding rise in the value of 
articles produced. These are not new opinions with me; for in 1850, 
I contended, while discussing the tariff, that one of the reasons why 
manufactures were so cheap, was tliat a long peace in England had 
caused the wealth and labor, formerly expended in wars to be employed 
in production, and thus brought down the prices of articles, and put 
them in the reach of a larger number. If this was a sound argument, 
as I still think, then the reverse, viz: withdrawing labor and capital 
from j)roduction, and expending it in war, will tend to raise prices in 
those commodities. 

I refer to all these matters to show that our interests are suffering 
from the effects of this war; how much it is not easy to determine. 
My own opinion is from fifty to a hundred millions of dollars a year. 
I have no doubt that it is largely more than the expenses of this gov- 
ernment. Now, if this be so, is it not worth while to see if an}' meas- 
ures can be devised to remove the cause of such a loss? 

But, it may be said that this is only temporary, and that matters 
will soon get right. On the contrary, it strikes me that these evils 
must continue and be permanent. England and France have already 
sent more than one hundred and fifty thousand men to the East, 
Now if they cost the Allies as much per man as our soldiers did in 
Mexico, it will be upwards of one thousand dollars per man for a cam- 
paign ; and this, in the aggregate, amounts to one hundred and fifty 
millions. Besides this, they have already made an enormous expen- 
diture of money for the naval armaments, both for the Baltic and 
Black seas. So that the whole expenditure may be nearly twice 
that sum. From the English papers, I observe that the British gov- 
ernment is about building a hundred and twenty steam gunboats, at 
a cost of $250,000 each. That item alone will amount to $30,000,000. 
The Russian and Turkish expenditures are also very large, so that the 
entire war expenses must reach several hundred millions. 

Now the money expended in this manner is as completely lost to 
the world as that invested in the Arctic when she went down into the 
waters of the deep sea. 

It is supposed that the Allies have lost forty or fifty thousand men, 
including those who have been slain in battle, died of disease, or have 
been permanently disabled. The Russian loss is greater, especially if 
we take into account the campaign on the Danube. The same is 
probably true of the Turks. The loss of all must exceed one hundred 



(367) 

thousand men. Now, North Carolina is an averaged sized State, in 
popuhition, and she has on^^ one hnndred thousand voters. There 
has then been a number of men destroyed as great or greater than all 
the voting population of my State — men in the prime of life, men 
selected for their bodily vigor, and many of whom were men of intel- 
lect and education. All these are swept away. The effect of the war 
is far more disastrous than any epidemic disease which sweeps over a 
country, and takes away a like number of men, women, and children, 
indiscriminately. 

INIy object in making these remarks is to show that an immense 
amount of the wealth of the world, and a very large number of produ- 
cers, as well as consumers of the products of our labors, are annihila- 
ted. I hold that such a loss is injurious to the commercial interests of 
ever}' civilized country in the world, and especially to that of the 
United States. 

To prove the truth of this proposition, let us suppose the United States 
to be the only civilized country in the world, and all the rest, to be filled 
with savages, we should have then no exports and no imports. This 
is evident as soon as stated. As in that contingency, all our surplus 
productions would perish on our hands, I need not argue that this 
state of things would be immensely injurious to us. I maintain that 
as you destroy the wealtli of the civilized world to an}- great extent, 
you approximate that condition to which I have alluded. For 
instance, suppose that other nations were tlirown back to the condi- 
tion of things that existed twenty-five years ago. We then sold less 
than thirty millions of dollars worth of cotton, if Euroi)e were in the 
same condition as at that time, and we had now a hundred millions to 
sell, but could find a market for only thirty millions, where should we 
find ourselves? The extra amount of seventy millions would rot on 
our hands. But 1 take the further jiosition, that even if this war, or 
any other cause, should keep the rest of the world stationary for the 
next ten yeai's, we should be greatly losers, because we are constantly 
increasing our productions; and hence, if there should not be a pro- 
portionate increase in the markets of the world, we should be losers. 

I think, therefore, that the proposition can be maintained as asound 
one in political economy, that you cannot destroy a large amount of 
the wealth of the world, without injury to us as a great commercial 
nation. There may be exceptions to this rule here and there, but as 
a general proposition, it holds good. If then, the war be injurious to 
us, financially and commercially, will it benefit us politicully ? In 
reference to the question of the balance of power in Europe, it is true 
that it is not a matter for us to interfere with. But I may say that 
you could not change that balance of power without prejudicing us. 
For example, if Russia becomes omnipotent, and crushes the western 
commercial nations, though the Czar might be as just as and moderate 
as our own Washington, his successors might not be so, and it is easy to 
see that their conduct could change things to our injury. If the Allies, 
on the other hand, should prove decidedly victorious, their ascendancy 
might give them, not onl}' greater power, but also greater inclination 
to interfere with us on this side of the globe. Looking, therefore, to 



(368) 

the mere question of the balance of power in Europe, you cannot 
change it without putting us in a worse condition than we now are. 
I hope it will remain evenly balanced, so Miat each Power may be able 
to hold others in check, and prevent mischief 

But having barely adverted to these topics to show that this war is 
an evil to us, I pass now to the consideration of the other great ques- 
tion. Is there anything in the attendant circumstances of a character 
to induce a belief that our country might exert an influence to bring 
the war to a close '^ This, Mr. Chairman, is a question of great deli- 
cacy, as it involves an exa;ninatioii of the grounds of the war itself If 
I were to enter into a discussion of its causes, I should speak of things 
which persons in Europe, perhaps, understand better than I can do 
here. In the next place, I might get up such a debate as would lead 
to a discussion of the merits of the several contending parties, and 
put ourselves in a position which neutrals ought not to occupy. I 
therefore feel the full force of the caution given by the old Roman 
poet, to those who tread on ashes that may conceal fires underneath. 
Nevertheless, I desire to make a suggestion or two on this point 

The war originally rested upon a very narrow basis, so small that 
the parties themselves did not expect it to produce a war. This is clear 
from their procrastination and tardiness in making adequate prepara- 
tions for so great a contest. In fact, it was supposed, at one time, that 
they had settled the difficulty. The Czar himself is represented to 
have said that the war is one "for which, judged by its apparent 
grounds, there is no reason ; and it is contrary to the moral, industrial, 
and commercial interests of the entire world." It is true, that he goes 
on to charge that the purpose of the allies is to limit the power of 
Russia. Well, if that be their purpose, of course any offer of media- 
tion from us would most probably lead to no favorable result. But I 
do not understand that the allies have planted themselves upon that 
ground as yet. And even if the}' have for a moment entertained such 
notions, the formidable resistance they have met with when attacking 
what was supposed to be the exposed point of the Czar's dominions, 
will go far to satisfy them that it is not an easy matter so to change 
the map of Europe as to deprive Russia of any portion of her terri- 
tory. I do not believe they will persist in any such purpose. They 
are governed by wise and sagacious statesmen ; and, in view of the 
difficulties which present themselves, I do not think they entertain 
the idea that, without a longer struggle than either of these govern- 
ments are willing to make, they can materially diminish the power of 
Russia. 

All history shows that the apparent strength of alliances is decep- 
tive. Where all the parties are acting in good faith, and with equal 
zeal, it very frequently happens that, from the want of proper concert 
of action, they fail to accomplish their object. All Europe at one time 
assailed France unsuccessfully, and Napoleon himself, at a later day, 
carried most of the European nations with him against Russia, but 
his reverses caused Austria and other Powers to secede and join his 
enemies, so that he was in the end overwhelmed. I take it for gran- 
ted, therefore, that these sagacious statesmen will not rely so fully on 



(3G9) 

this alliance, powerful as it seems to be, as to press the matter to the 
extreme I have alluded to. 

It does not strike me, Mr. Chairman, that it is the interest of either 
of these Powers to desire a prolongation of the war. England is a 
commercial nation. The English people are brave, and energetic, and 
patient and so long as their government tells them it is necessary to carry 
on the war they will submit to sacrifices. But England can have no 
hope of acquiring territor}^, so as to compensate her for these sacrifices. 
This remark applies equally to Fra,nce. Her Emperor seems to have 
been directing his energies of late very much to the improvement of 
the interior of his own country, in all respects, and to the beautify- 
ing of Paris, its magnificent capital. I do not, therefore, believe that 
the Allies will at present desire to prolong the war. And very clearly it 
cannot be the interest of Russia to have v/ar ratherthan peace. The Czar 
of Russia has a territory twice as large as that of the United States. 
It is but thinly settled, and the facilities of communication between 
the different parts of it are not such as they should be. He marches 
men a thousand miles from Moscow to the Black Sea or the Danube, 
and they are decimated two or three times over by disease and fatigue, 
ere they reach the point of action. Now, you and I know very well, 
sir, that railroads from Moscow and St. Peterburgh to the Danube, the 
Crimea, and the Caspian, would make Russia stronger now than she 
would be with the whole Turkish empire annexed, without these facil- 
ities. I take it for granted that a sagacious ruler, like the Czar, would 
rather improve the condition of his country, in this respect, than pro- 
long such a war. Great Britain is just the reverse of Russia in this 
respect ; and by reason of her compactness, insular position, and mar- 
itime supremacy, she is a formidable antagonist to any countr}^ under 
the sun, having one league of sea coast. 

But, Mr. Chairman, I have no doubt that there were some mistakes 
made originally. I think it highly probable that the parties took 
the successive steps that led them into this war without foreseeing 
where they would carry them. The Emperor of Russia may not have 
expected such an alliance when he took possession of the Princi- 
palities, and the Allies probably thought he would recede when they 
made their demonstration. But, sir, they have now placed themselves 
in a position where neither can well make the first move towards a 
settlement, without a sacrifice of pride, and perhaps of prestige. Their 
condition is well described by Vattel, in a few sentences, which I will 
read to the committee. He says: 

" Two nations, though equally weary of war, often continue it merely from 
the fear of making the first advances to an accommodation, as these might 
be imputed to weakness; or they persist in it from animosity, and against 
their own interests. Then, common friends effectually interpose, offering 
themselves as mediators. And tliere cannot be a more beneficent office than 
that of reconciling tAvo nations at war, and thus putting a stop to the effu- 
sion of blood. This is an indispensable duty to those who are possessed of 
the means of succeeding in it." 
47 ^ 



(370) 

These sentences, Mr. Chairman, express fully what I would say on 
this point. But if the contest be not terminated now, it must soon 
become a general European war. It will next year probably get into 
Germany and Italy, and be more destructive than the w^ars of Napo- 
leon, because the means of aggression and destruction are greater at 
this time than they were in his day. When the tri-colored flag is on 
the Danube or the A'^istula, the impetuous glory-loving Frenchman 
will have brought back vividly the recollections of Marengo, and 
Jena, and Austerlitz, and Wagram. All Europe will be in a blaze, 
and the war will fall with destructive and crushing force on the indus- 
trial and lower classes, who, in such times, are always the greatest 
sufferers. 

There are some who look with hope and pleasure to this condition 
of things. They say that the governments will be overthrown, and 
the cause of liberty advanced. I have no doubt but that some of the 
existing governments will be put down, but I do not concur in the 
opinion that republicanism will gain. You may see one tyrannical 
government overthrown, and another, stronger and more tyrannical, 
erected in its stead. The only liberty which is worth preserving, is 
that which is founded upon law. And from the days of Julius Caesar 
down to the present time, "arms and laws have not flourished together." 
On the contrar}^, during military struggles, despotism raises its head 
and dominates over the land amidst the clangor of arms. To protect 
life and property, power must be given to the existing governments. 
The greater the perils which surround them, the higher the powers 
with which they must be invested. Men will submit to any exactions, 
therefore, to support vast military armaments. But let there be peace 
and security, and these very armaments, being no longer necessary to 
the safety of the State, soon become intolerable and will be discarded. 

Sir, the history of modern Europe sustains this position. It was 
after a long period of peace that the first French revolution exhibited 
itself, and at the close of the long and desolating wars to which it gave 
rise — I mean when the Congress of Vienna sat — liberty lay low all 
over Europe. It was after a long period of peace that the revolution 
of 1830 shook down the French monarchy, and extended its vibrations 
into distant Poland. It was after another long period of peace that 
the revolution of 1848 blazed out in France, illuminating Lombard}'-, 
Italy and Hungary, until its light was dimmed and extinguished by 
the smoke of battle. 

Sir, our neighbor, Mexico, has had war enough in the last fifty years 
to have made her people the freest on the earth, and yet, though many 
tyrannical governments have been put down there, the cause of civil 
liberty has not advanced. Nor has it in the South American States ; 
nor in the world generally, during hostile struggles. What I mean to 
say is, not that war may not be sometimes necessary to protect liberty, 
but I affirm that libert}'' does not usually spring out of war; that where 
you have one case of that kind, I can point to a hundred of a contrary 
tendency. Looking, therefore, simply to the interest of the masses of 
Europe, I would rather have peace than war. In peace you have the 
railroad and telegraph and the newspaper, Efery newspaper and 



(371) 

letter, and message is an atom thrown on the side of liberty. You will 
find that as men become wealthier they will become more intelligent 
and more tenacious of their political and personal rights. 

These views, Mr. Chairman, accord with our own political system. 
We have the smallest army and navy of any of the great nations, and 
our policy has been that of peace, in the main, from the days of Wash- 
ington. There are, too, passages in our own history, which render it 
imperative that we should make the movement which I have indi- 
cated. It is well known that during our revolutionary struggle, France 
interfered on our side, and ultimately became our ally, and aided us 
until the end of the struggle. But for that intervention it is highly 
probable that the assembly which I am addressing to-day would not 
exist. And, sir, while alluding to this, I find myself unexpectedly in 
the presence of one who calls up recollections; I cannot see at this 
moment, without emotions, the gentleman on my left. (Mr. Clingman 
looked at M. Lafayette, who was sitting near him.) 

A voice. "Who is it?" 

It is, (said Mr. Clingman, continuing,) he whose grandsire is pic^ 
tured on that tapestry, (pointing to the full length portrait of the Mar- 
quis de Lafayette, on the left of the Speaker.) When we remember 
the past, made vivid by the sight of that picture and this living repre- 
sentative, is there one who can doubt but that we owe a deep debt of 
gratitude to France. While I would not pretend that we ought, under 
the circumstances, to take part, by force, on her side, I nevertheless 
maintain that we are under the highest obligations to do everything 
consistently with our own interest, to relieve France from danger or 
difficulty. 

At a later period in our history, when we were at war with England, 
in 1812, Russia tendered her mediation. That mediation was, in the 
language of Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State, " willingly accepted " 
by our government. Great Britain declined it, but subsequently, and 
after she had triumphed over her great adversary in Europe, and was 
prepared to turn all her forces against the United States, and thus give 
the war a much more serious and formidable character, it is well known 
that the interference of Alexander of Russia contributed, in a power- 
ful manner, towards the pacification which took place. Russia, too, 
it appears, then, has strong claims to any good offices we can render her. 

Still later in our progress as a nation there is an incident, and a 
precedent more striking and conclusive in its character. In 1835, 
when this government, under the administration of General Jackson 
was in imminent danger of being involved in waf with France, Great 
Britain tendered her mediation. It was accepted, both by us and by the 
King of France, and a pacification between the two governments was the 
result. Upon this point I cannot do better than to read a few sentences 
from the work of the distinguished gentleman from Missouri, (Mf, 
Benton). After alluding to the state of things which then existed— the 
exhaustion of negotiations and the preparatory armanents on both 
sides, he refers to the fact that General Jackson sent in a message to 
Congress, announcing his acceptance of the mediation, and uses the 
following language : 



( 872 ) 

*'In communicating the offei- of the British mediation tlie "^President 
expressed his high appreciation of the ' elevated and disinterested motives of 
that offer.' The motives were, in fact, both elevated and disinterested; and 
present one of those noble spectacles in the conduct of nations on which 
history loves to dwell. France and the United States had fought together 
against Great Biitain; now Great Britain steps between France and the 
United States to jjrevent them from fighting each other. George III 
received the combined attacks of French and Americans; his son, William 
IV, interposes to prevent their arms from being turned against each other. 
It was a noble intervention, and a just return for the good work of tlie Empe- 
ror Alexander in offering his mediation between the United States and Great 
Britain — good works these peace mediations, and as nearly divine as human- 
ity can reach; — worthy of all praises of long remembrance, and continual 
imitation; — the more so in this case of the British mediation when the event 
to be prevented would have been so favorable to British interests — would 
have thrown the commerce of the United States and of France into her hands 
and enriched her at the expense of both. Happily the progress of the age 
which, in cultivating good v/ill among nations, elevates great j)owers above 
all selfishness, and permits no unfriendly recollection — no selfish calculation — 
to balk the impulsions of a noble philanthropy." 

These, Mr. Chairman, are just and noble sentiments in themselves, 
and concisely and handsomely expressed. Andrew Jackson, then at 
the head of our government, was not a man likely to succumb to an 
adversary, or to admit improper interference from a foreign quarter. 
Nor did any man in these halls, or in the country, censure his accep- 
tatance bt the mediation. Every one knew that the iron loill, before 
which the veteran columns of England were broken to pieces at New 
Orleans, would have been not less strikingly exhibited in defense of 
any right that could claim the protection of our flag. 

It thus appears that each one of these three great Powers has, in 
periods of trial or danger to us, interfered for our relief; and shall 
we not reciprocate their good offices? Shall we be always ready to 
receive benefits, and never to return them? Shall we fold our arms 
and coolly look on, while our former friends are struggling in the 
midst of perils? Above all, shall we refuse to act because we hope to 
take benefits from their misfortunes? Is a great government like 
ours to occupy the position of the wrecker, who stands upon the sea 
beach during tlie storm, praying that navies may be stranded, that he 
may seize upon the floating fragments? Shall we imitate the kite and 
the vulture that follow armies to prey upon the slain, or the sharks 
that collect around the sinking ship to devour the drowning inmates? 
If any gentleman here has such feelings, I envy him not their en- 
joyment. 

If we were, as a nation, too feeble to protect ourselves, we might, 
upon the plea of necessity, justify being thus coniemptibie. We might 
then have an excuse for wishing that others might be crippled lest 
they should hurt us. But while in a war with any great maritime 
power our commerce would seriously suffer, there is no nation in less 
danger of conquest or mutilation. We can, therefore, aftbrd to be just 
and honorable, yea, even magnanimous. 



( 373 ) 

There is another reason, Mr. Chairman, which operates with great 
force on my mind as an argument for my proposition. The impres- 
sion prevails in Europe, or, at all events, has been sought to be created 
there, that we are a grasping and rapacious people. I do not, for a 
moment, admit the justice of this charge against us. On the con- 
trary, I think the United States have shown, from their earliest history, 
a commendable moderation. I recollect very well being told by a 
gentleman who had just returned from Europe, whilst the Texas 
annexation was pending, that the veteran statesman Metternich said 
to him, there was not a government in Europe that would have hesi- 
tated a moment to take Texas on the terms on which she offered her- 
self In fact, while England has been taking kingdom after kingdom 
in Asia, and France has been extending her conquests over Africa, 
and the other European governments have been taking all the terri- 
tor}' they could acquire without peril to themselves, we may well 
challenge a comparison with them. 

I nuiy say, further, in order that no gentleman may misunderstand 
the feelings with which I make these remarks, that I belong to what 
is called the party of progress, or to Young America. I am in favor 
of the acquisition of territory under proper circumstances. Never- 
theless, while I entertain these opinions, and believe that injustice has 
been done to our country abroad, it is impossible to conceal the fact 
that the impression |)revails in Europe that we desire this war to con- 
tinue, in order that we may get an opportunity to seize upon our 
neighbor's territory. Now, by making this movement we shall truth- 
fully, and at the same time, gracefully remove any such impression. 
Besides, sir, it would be a declaration of neutrality in the most 
emphatic form. It would not only be a declaration that our govern- 
ment intends to stand neutral, but that it did not desire that the war 
should continue to the injury of the parties themselves. If the move- 
ment were to be successful, if we were to be instrumental in relieving 
these belligerents from their present difficulties, it would give us the 
greatest consideration, not only with the governments, but also with 
the masses of the people. 

I maintain that if our country and its government becomes popular 
with the people of Great Britain and France, and with the other 
nations of Europe, the monarchs would not like to quarrel with us in 
opposition to the wishes of their subjects. But where there is ill- 
feeling between countries a single spark will sometimes light the 
flames of war. 

I have, Mr. Chairman, discussed this questior) mainly upon the 
narrow ground of our interests as a nation. This, however, is not the 
mode to do full justice to the subject. To do this will require a much 
wider range of thought and investigation. Independently of all calcu- 
lations of interest, considerations of humanity rise up and force them- 
selves upon the mind. The earth was given to man for his dominion 
and control. But it is only in our times that men are beginning to 
assert that right in its full extent. I do not mean to say that in former 
ages men have not been spread over the earth, but it is only in our 
day that they have begun to turn its great natural agents to account. 



(374) 

This war will stop the progress of humanity. It will destroy the 
greatest and best works of man, and throw him back upon the bar- 
barism of the past. 

Besides, it is a war between the different branches of the great Cau- 
casian family — the white races of men, who have shown by their supe- 
rior mental and moral endownments, their right to control the world 
and regulate its destinies. It is also a war, in the main, between 
Christian nations ; and we are impelled, therefore, by considerations 
of humanity, of race, and of religion, to interpose, if our interposition 
can avail anything. If the movement is to be made, it should begin 
here. We represent the feelings, the very heart of the American peo- 
ple ; hence our sanction will give greater force and consideration to 
the movement. But to the Executive, who has the charge of conduct- 
ing the foreign affairs of the country, it belongs properly to decide 
when and how the step should be taken. If there be not a fitting occa- 
sion just now, it may be otherwise a few months hence. 

Entertaining these feelings, my original object was to bring the 
subject before the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and let that committee 
determine whether such a movement was advisable ; if it were, to let 
it begin with Congress, but leave to the Executive the mode and man- 
ner of conducting it. The President, of course, has an acquaintance 
with the condition of things which nobody else can possess, and to him, 
therefore, would I leave it to determine whether the movement should 
be made now or at some future day, and whether the offer of media- 
tion should be tendered through the foreign ministers here or through 
our ministers abroad, or in any other mode that he might regard as 
best calculated to effect the object. Whenever he should think proper 
to act, he would then move in the matter with all the authority of the 
government to sustain him. If the movement shall be made, I have 
no doubt but that it would be sanctioned and approved by our con- 
stituents. 



The state of feeling developed in the Northern States during the latter part of the 
years 1854 and 1855, satisfied me that the anti-slavery movement could not be checked 
by argument, and that it would, if only thus opposed, result either in a dissolution of 
the Union or a civil war. It seemed that a foreign war offered the only mode 
of averting it. While I would not have thought it right to encourage a war upon 
an innocent country for such a purpose, yet if there were a country that had given 
U8 abundant cause to make war against it, I was willing to resort to that step to 
avert the danger which threatened us. Especially would this be justifiable, if that 
country were itself, by its action, the chief instigator of the movement to produce a 
civil war among our own people. 

For example : If a man, without cause, attempts to kill me in the streets, it is 
universally admitted that I may even kill him in self-defense. But will any one deny 
that if a man were industriously furnishing poison to my servants, and urging them 
them by all possible means to poison me, I would not be equally justified in using 
force to counteract his efforts. Such a case as this was presented by the action of 



(375) 

Great Britain. Its history for the last two centuries shows it to be, in a worldly 
sense of the terras the wisest and wickedest government that has hitherto existed on 
the globe. For its own selfish purposes, it with great industry for a series of years 
worked steadily to effect the destruction, or at le ast the crippling of the United 
States. 

It was clear to my mind that we had a perfect right to interrupt her movement against 
us, if necessary, by going to war with her. In such an event, her agents and allies, 
the Abolitionists, would have taken sides with her, and thus by arraying the national 
feelings of the country against them, they would have been rendered as powerless 
for mischief as was the old Federal party by its opposition to the war of 1813. 

Even if no war should follow from the movements that I favored, as least the pub- 
lic attention would have been directed to foreign questions rather than to a domestic 
controversy. The administration of President Pierce, however, could not be induced 
to look in that direction. 

When the slaughter of some of our citizens occurred at Panama, I made a most 
earnest appeal to him "personally, and also to Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, to 
induce them to take steps to occupy the isthmus of Panama, for damages, and pay 
the government of Grenada a pecuniary consideration by way of boot, for it. This 
matter was subsequently referred to in the House in my speech of May 5th, 1858. 
Also, when the case of the Black Warrior occurred, I, in connection with the Hon. 
John Perkins, of Louisiana, made an effort to induce the government to take decided 
action, but to no purpose. 

With respect to this last transaction, as a different impression was at that time 
sought to be made, it is due to the truth that I should explain what actually did take 
place in that connection. I do this the more willingly because Judge Perkins and 
Mr. Davis are both living, and if they think proper can add their recollections to 
mine. It is perhaps also right that I should do so, because I have in conversation 
several times spoken of the transaction. Soon after the message of the President 
was read, Judge Perkins and I had a conversation on the subject. We were both 
members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and concurred in our feelings with 
reference to the matter of the message. At his request, after the adjournment of the 
House I repaired to his lodging, then near the corner of Fourteenth street and Pennsyl- 
vania avenue. We jointly prepared resolutions in response to the calls in the mes- 
sage, for means to defend the honor and interests of the country. Judge Perkins 
kept all the papers, and I can only only speak from memory as to their precise terms. 
In substance we proposed to authorize the Presidsnt to make use of the army and 
navy, to accept the service of fifty thousand volunteers, and make an appropriation 
of ten millions in money. I may not remember the numbers precisely, though I can- 
not be mistaken as to the substance of the proposition. After the resolutions had 
been fully written out, Mr. Perkins being, as well as myself, well pleased with them, 
suggested that before we had them proposed in the committee they should be com- 
municated to the administration. I earnestly objected to this, because I appre- 
hended that the administration, not being really in earnest, would endeavor to strangle 
the proposition. Though I insisted that we ought to take the message as conclusive 
of the President's wishes, yet Mr. Perkins said he did not feel willing to press them 
through the committee, without first submitting them to the President, «S;c. 

He expressed the greatest confidence that all would be right, and said that by 
eleven o'clock in the morning he would be in the committee room prepared to press 



(376) 

the resolutions. The committee met at ten o'clock, and remained in session till 
eleven o'clock without his appearing, I kept them occupied with some little matters 
till twelve o'clock, hoping that he might come, but in vain. When the House met I 
sought him without finding him in his seat. It was not until nearly two o'clock 
that he appeared. On my going to him and asking why he had failed to come to 
the committee, he said: "Why, that matter fell on them up there (referring to the 
White House) like a coujp d''etat.^^ " What do you mean ?" I enquired. He answered, 
" They said nothing would be more embarrassing to them than such a movement in 
Congress, and entreated me not to urge it." Subsequently he told me that the matter 
was discussed for two or three hours, Messrs. Pierce, Marcy and Davis being all 
present. 

Some other things occurred in this connection which at this time I do not think 
it necessary to state, without the permission of Judge Perkins. They, however, in 
no wise tend to reflect on him, but, on the contrary his action was in all respects 
praiseworthy. 

I was of opinion at that time that a war with Spain, England, and even France, 
(though I did not believe that she could be gotten into it) would not cost us a tenth 
of the men and mon.ey that a civil war would do. 

In connection with the foreign affairs of the country I refer to an incident which 
led, perhaps, to a publication subsequently made. Crampton, the British minister, had 
been detected in what was supposed to be a violation of our neutral position in the 
Crimean war. While his case was the subject of controversy, I saw President Pierce, 
and suggested that as England was sensitive and very averse to his dismissal, it 
would be politic to waive the matter, provided we could, in exchange for so doing, 
obtain a substantial concession as to Central America. He and Mr. Marcy, either 
from anger, or, as I then thought, to make political capital for the next Presidential 
race, insisted on Crampton's dismissal. On the evening after this occurred, I met at 
a party both the Count de Sartiges, the French minister, and Baron Stoekl, the 
Russian. I saw at a glance on meeting them that the French minister was exceed- 
ingly disturbed and very much depressed, while the Russian embassador was elated 
and jubilant. These circumstances were too significant to fail to make an impression. 

On the next morning I called at the war ofiice and said to Mr. Davis, the Secre- 
tary, that in saying what I was about to do, I wished him to understand that I did 
not myself believe any serious difficulty would result from the dismissal of Crampton, 
but that two persons who ought to be better posted on that subject than I could 
be expected to be, evidently thought differently, or at least seemed to believe that 
something might grow out of the transaction. I then stated to Mr. Davis what I 
had observed, and asked him in the event of war with Great Britain what would be 
our means of defense in California. I stated that we could easily march men across 
the continent, but that we could not transport heavy ordnance, and asked him if 
there were a sufficiency of heavy guns at San Francisco to resist an attack from the 
sea. He at once concurred in the view that it was important to enquire, and he 
immediately sent for Colonel Craig, the Chief of Ordnance. When he came in it was 
ascertained that the means of defense were insufiicient, and he directed that a quan 
tity of heavy ordnance, with the necessary stores, should forthwith be sent by sea to 
San Francisco. 



(377 



[It became more and more evident that the next presidential contest, as far at least 
as the Northern States were concerned, was to be made to turn upon the slavery 
issue To defeat such a movement it seemed necessary that the Conservative feeling 
of the country should be strengthened as much as possible, and united on a single 
candidate. As our opponents would show a solid front against us, it was our plain 
duty likewise to unite for the common defence. As too, our adversaries derived a 
large part of their strength from their alliance with the British Abolitionists, and 
such powerful aid as the English press daily gave them, it seemed of the utmost 
importance that this conbination should be exposed and thereby its influences 
weakened as much as possilile. With that purpose, I prepared and published a 
paper, directed to my own constituents, but which was intended for general circula- 
tion, and which in fact was used to some extent in other States. In it a contrast 
was drawn between the action of Great Britain in its dependencies, and the condi- 
tion to which it reduced its subjects, especially in India, and that of the laborers in 
the Southern States of our Union, and some points were made with a view of arraying 
the feelings of our countrymen against the British movement and policy. 

It seemed that by exposing the injustice of the Abolitionists towards us, and at the 
same time rendering their great ally odious to our people, an union of all the con- 
servative elements of the country might be effected. With this purpose, the address 
which follows was published.] 

ADDRESS 

TO THE FREEMEN OF THE EIGHTH CONGRESSIONAL DIS- 
TRICT OF NORTH CAROLINA, ON THE POLITICAL CON- 
DITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE COUNTRY. 

Fellow-Citizens : Many letters have, during the present session of 
Congress, been received by me containing inquiries in relation to the 
present political condition of the country and its future prospects. 
Not only in my own district, but elsewhere throughout the South, 
there is doubt and anxiety in the public mind. In my judgment, 
there are good grounds for appreliension ; and I adopt this as the 
most appropriate mode of communicating my views to you, and shall 
speak with that frankness that I am accustomed to use when discussing 
political topics in your presence. 

That the ultimate destiny of our present political system will be 
determined by events soon to occur, is most probable. If the perils 
which threaten it are properly understood by the people, they will be 
averted, and we may well hope for a long career of prosperity under 
our existing form of government. The danger which now menaces 
the existence of the Federal Union arises from feelings of hostility 
entertained in the North towards the Southern section, and especially 
the institution of negro slavery as it exists among us. To indicate 
fully the nature of the evil which impends, it may be necessary to 
review some points that have already been brought to your notice by 
48 



{ 378 ) 

myself and others in former discussions. So great is the interest 
involved, however, in the question, that you will, I know, fellow-citi- 
zens, pardon some recurrence to familiar topics. 

When the Constitution of the United States was originally adopted, 
twelve of the States v/ere slave-holding, one of the old thirteen only 
having abolished the institution. In forming the Constitution, there- 
fore, no power was given to the general government to interfere witi 
slavery in the wa}^ of abolishing it, or even restricting it to any par- 
ticular territory or limits, but each State retained its former right to 
act for itself with reference to the subject. The only powers given the 
Federal government were plainly bestowed on it for the protection 
and defence of the institution in such of the States as desired to retain 
it It is provided tliat slaves should be represented in Congress, so 
as to increase the weight of the slave-holding States; secondly, that 
all such as might run away should be restored to their owners; and, 
thirdly, that for the period of twenty years Congress should not pre- 
vent the importation of such additional slaves as the States might 
desire to add to their existing numbers. It was thus manifest that, 
while ample power was given the government to defend slavery as 
long as any one State might desire to retain it, there was allowed to 
it not the shadow of authority to abolish, or even to assail, the insti- 
tution. 

For thirty years after its adoption the provisions of the Constitution 
were maintained, and under their operation some of the Northern States 
having in the meantime sold most of their slaves to the Southern peo- 
ple, to whom such property was worth more than it could be in the 
North, abolished the system, while several new States, both free and 
slaveholcling, had been admitted into the Union. The Federal gov- 
ernment, in the meantime had properly abstained from all interfer- 
ence with the subject. In the year 1820, the State of Missouri offered 
herself for admission into the Union, with a Constitution recognizing 
slavery. The application met with violent opposition from the North. 
This was owing to the course of certain leaders of the old Federal party. 
In such of the Northern States as had abolished slavery there was a feel- 
ing against it. As the difference between white men and negroes had not 
then been mucli noticed or understood, it was not difficult to enlist the 
sympathies of the people there in favor of the slaves of the South ; 
and the leaders, therefore, of a party that had been overthrown and 
rendered odious, by inflammatory appeals in favor of universal liberty, 
and denunciation of the slave power of the South, aroused a strong- 
feeling throughout the entire North, so that a body of representatives 
were returned from that section hostile to the application of the new 
State, though her Constitution w^as, in respect to slavery, similar to those 
of a majority of the old States. After an exciting struggle, an act 
was passed proposing to allow Missouri to come into the Union, but 
declaring in one of its clauses that in all that portion of the Louisiana 
Territory that la}^ north of the parallel of 36° 30^ slavery should never 
exist. 

By the old French and Spanish laws, which had been in operation 
over the entire territory, slavery legally existed in every part of it, and 



(379) 

this was in law, if not in fact, an act of abolition. Southern men, how- 
ever, from an extreme anxiety to procure the admission of the new 
State, unwisely and weakly consented to support the measure, and 
were willing to purchase for Missouri what she could claim as a right 
under the Constitution. The restriction was supposed by Southern 
men, however, to have entitled her to come into the Union ; but at the 
succeeding session of Congress, when she applied with her republican 
Constitution, the body of the Northern representatives still resisted and 
rejected her, in accordance with the instructions of most of the 
Northern States. Hence it became necessary for new concessions to be 
made, and an additional price paid to tlie North ; and Mr. Clay came 
forward with his compromise, requiring Missouri to do certain other 
humiliating things before she could get into the Union. In this way, 
with the aid of six or seven Northern votes only, she was accepted, 
in the midst of a general storm of opposition from the North. Since 
the prohibition of slavery north of 36° 30^ was originally offered as a 
consideration for her admission, and as such was not accepted by the 
the free States, but a new price required, it would have been right for 
the South to have likewise repudiated the act of prohibition. Never- 
theless, impelled by a strong desire to have peace and harmony, the 
exclusion was acquiesced in by her, wliile the North complained and 
denounced the act. The anti-slavery feeling gradually subsided there, 
and the country remained quiet until a new influence was brought to 
bear on it. 

Great Britain had acquired, by the force of her arms and skill in 
diplomacy, immense possessions in Asia. Her East Indian provinces 
alone contained more than one hundred millions of people, held in a 
state of most abject slavery, and oppressed by much greater hardships 
than the negroes of any part of the United States. 

To make this appear — and because British writers are constantly 
denouncing the slaveholders of the South for their immorality, bar- 
barity, and cruelty — and because the Abolitionists in this country are 
in the daily habit of praising everything in England, and holding up 
her conduct for us to imitate— it will not be amiss for me to present 
some facts. Eighteen months since the British Parliament was forced, 
b}^ the pressure of public opinion, to send out to India a commission to 
inquire into the manner in which the people were treated there. That 
commission, after examining hundreds of witnesses, has recently made 
its report; and I find the substance of it given in the January number 
of the Edinhurgh Review for the present year. It must be borne in 
mind, that in that country the government owns the land and compels 
the people to work it, exacting as much as one-half, and, it is said, 
even two-thirds, of the entire product of the farms. It is difficult — 
almost impossible, indeed — to collect such enormous rents. As a 
means, however, of exacting it, torture is habitually applied. I present 
a few extracts from the article of this periodical — a publication as reli- 
able as any in Great Britain: 

"The tortures which the commissioners fiud to have been employi'd are of 
various kinds and of different degrees of severity. Some of them art' so liglit 



(380) 

as to amount to little more than a menace. Some are so severe as to cause 
not only extreme present pain, but permanent injuries, mutilations, and even, 
not untVequently, death. Some of them exhibit an amount of diabolical 
ingenuity on the part of the torturer, and a degree of moral abasement and 
degradation in the victim, of which our western minds can hardly foi-m a 
conception; some, in fine, are so loathsome and indecent, at the same time so 
excruciating, that, although they are set down nakedly in the report, we must 
abstain from any specific allusion to their nature. 

"The two most common forms of torture appear to be the Mttee{mTe\oo- 
goo called eheerata) and the anyndal, which, in the same language, is called 
gingerL 

"The kittee corresponds with the thumbscrew of the European torturer. 
It is a wooden instrument, somewhat like a lemon-squeezer, between the plates 
of which the hands, the thighs, (in women also the breasts,) the ears, and 
other more sensitive parts of the body, are squeezed to the last point of endu- 
rance, often to fainthig, and even to permanent disablement. In many places 
the kittee has been superseded by the more simple plan of violently compres- 
sing the hands under a flat board, on which a heavy pressure is laid, some- 
times even hy the peons stniuUng upon it; or of compelling the sufferer to 
interlace his fingers, and deliver him over to the iron gripe of the peons, (or 
policemen,) who sometimes i-ub their hands with sand, in order to give them 
a firmer gripe. In other cases the fingers are bent back until the pain becomes 
unendurable. 

"Occasionally a man is held aloft from the ground by the ears, by the hair, 
and even by the mustachio; and the latter torture, in some instances is applied 
so savagely as to tear away the mustachio by the roots. Sometimes a sort 
of bastinado is inflicted; sometimes violent blows on the shin, the ankles, the 
elbows, or other highly sensitive points; prolonged immersion in the water 
tanks or the river; forcible compression of the arms, the thighs, and even 
the body, by tying a coil of coir rope around them, and then applying cold 
water, so as to cause it to contract and sink into the flesh; burning it with 
hot iron; hanging heavy stones around the neck; the stocks; tying two or 
more individualstogether by tlie hair, so that every movement is attended 
with pain. 

" Will it be credited, for example, that it is not uncommon to apply to the 
most sensitive parts of the body (enclosed in a cloth or a cocoanut shell, or 
other similar receptacle) a biting insect or reptile, such as the poolah, or car- 
penter beetle, and leave it to gnaw the flesh of the miserable sufl^erer? — that, 
by a further refinement of cruelty, meant to combine both pain and humilia- 
tion, the defaulters are sometimes tied by the hair to the tail of a donkey or 
buffalo?- — that they are occasionally hung up with the head downwards? — 
and that it is an ordinary practice to put pep})er or powdered chillies into the 
eyes or the nostrils, and to apply these and similar irritating drugs in other 
ways too revolting to be hinted at?" 

There is a long and frightful detail of a great variety of tortures, 
which the reviewer declares, show "an amount of hateful ingenuity " 
which it is difBcult to conceive or believe, but that they are given in the 
report. After detailing many shocking cases of the dying of men 
under these various forms of torture, and of " women, by having the 
'•'kittee applied to their hreasts^' to enforce the collection, sometimes, of 
a few pence only, the commissioners confess that " the infliction of such 
descriptions of treatment as they had described has come, in the course 



(381) 

of centuries, to be looked on as customary — a thing of course — and to 
be submitted to as an every-day, unavoidable necessity." 

Though these details have recently been spread before the British 
public, they seem to have created no sensation, because, doubtless, the 
sufferers are not negroes, but of a race regarded as Caucasian, like the 
English themselves. 

ISuch is the condition of an empire whose example we are denounced 
for failing to imitate, both by the British press and its Abolition allies 
in this country. Under this system, grinding and monstrous as it is, 
the whole i)opulation is rapidly perishing in many of the provinces, 
and the most fertile lands are becoming desert wastes. These miserable 
laborers are mainly engaged in the cultivation of tropical produc- 
tions, to supply the demand of the markets of Great Britain and those 
of her customers. It was soon seen, however, that, owing to the supe- 
rior skill and energy of the planters of the South, they were able, by 
means of slave labor, to produce cotton, sugar, rice, &c., at lower rates, 
and thus undersell similar articles grown in India. The British gov- 
ernment likewise held certain islands in the West Indies, cultivated 
by negro slaves, but as the amount of her interest there was compara- 
tively small, she determined to sacrifice it for what she regarded as a 
more important object. She accordingly emancipated her negro slaves 
in the West Indies, and thereb}' reduced the islands to a state of un- 
productive barbarism. She then set in motion a system of operations 
to force the United States to emancipate her slaves in like manner, 
expecting, if tliis was accomplished, to be able to supply the world at 
her own prices with tropical productions from her great eastern posses- 
sions. This, however, was not the sole motive that influenced her 
conduct. The United States was her great commercial rival, and it 
was then seen that, owing to our more rapid increase, we should soon 
surpass her, as in fact we have already done, in the amount of our 
tonnage. The prodigious growth of our commerce arises from the fact 
that while the South, b}^ its successful agriculture, has furnished the 
freights, the North has built the ships to carry them to market; and it 
was obvious Lhat we should soon successfully contest the mastery of 
the seas with her. Her policy, therefore, was to separate the ships of 
the North from the productions of the South; and this would have 
been the case if she had succeeded in eflecting the abolition of slavery, 
so that the South would cease to have a surplus for export; or even had 
she failed in this, the same result would have been attained by a disso- 
lution of the Union. In this latter event, the North and the South 
being foreign countries to each other, the shipping of the one would 
have derived no advantage from the agriculture of the other, and 
Great Britain would have held the dominion of tlie ocean. There was 
another consideration operating on the English government and a 
portion of her people wnth more force than either of these. 

The United States is the great Republic of the earth, and the exam- 
ple of our free institutions was shaking the foundations of the mon- 
archical and aristocratic governments of Europe, 'i his was especially 
the case as respects the political sytem of Great Britain, owing to our 
common language, literature, and extended commercial intercourse. 



(382) 

The aristocracy there hold the mass of the people in subjection, and 
under a condition so oppressive that large numbers of white men of 
their own race are liable to perish miserably by famine in years of 
scarcity. A knowledge of the successful working of our institutions 
was increasing the discontent of the common people, and, fearing the 
loss of its sway, the aristocracy, which controls the entire power of 
the government, began a crusade for the abolition of slavery in the 
United States. They expected, in the first place, by affected sympatiiy 
for the negroes here, to divert the minds of the people at home to some 
extent from the consideration of their own sufferings, and to create 
the impression that other laborers were much worse off than their 
own. And should they succeed in breaking up our system, they would 
exultingly have pointed to it as evidence against the durability of free 
institutions. 

With a view, therefore, to effect these objects, more than twenty 
years ago the British press and book-makers generally, were stimula- 
ted to embark in a systematic war against negro slavery in the United 
States. Abolition lecturers were sent over, and money furnished to 
establish papers and circulate pamphlets to inflame the minds of the 
citizens of the Northern States. Looking far ahead, they sought to 
incorporate their doctrines into the school-books and publications best 
calculated to influence the minds of the young and ignorant. Their 
views were most readily received in Massachusetts, where there were 
the remains of old anti-slavery federalism, and where the British influ- 
ence has for the last half century been greatest. From this State these 
doctrines were graduall}^ diffused, to a great extent throughout the 
North. When the annexation to Texas took place, so strong were the 
manifestations of the anti-slavery feeling, that Southern members con- 
sented that the Missouri line, or the restriction of slavery north of 36° 
30', should be extended across the State. On the acquisition of the 
Mexican territor}^ occurred that struggle which is too well known to 
recjuire comment. We of the South, during a period of four years, 
taking conciliatory ground, sought to have the line of 36° 30^ in like 
manner extended through the territory to the Pacific, but the North 
invariably opposed and defeated it, and a settlement on different prin- 
ciples was adopted in 1850. 

Two years since, when the act organizing the Territories of Kansas 
and Nebraska was passed, it repealed the restriction of 1820, known as 
the Missouri line, and left the people who might inhabit those Terri- 
tories at liberty either to adopt or reject slavery, as they saw fit. This 
was right in itself, and in accordance with the principles of the Con- 
stitution. Nor was there any ground whatever for the complaint of 
its enemies, that it violated an old compromise, because the North, the 
very year after that restriction was adopted, refused to recognise it as 
a compromise, on all occasions afterwards repudiated it, and utterly 
refused to extend its operation to the new Territory. But it is some- 
times said that, though the repeal of this prohibition was right in 
in principle, yet it was inexpedient, and has created agitation. In my 
judgment it was a wise measure, and the agitation to wdiich it has 
given rise would have occurred on any other practical issue that 



(883) 

might, sooner or later, have arisen. And if the strength of the anti- 
sLavery feeling in the North is so great that such a measure cannot 
be sustained under the circumstances of its passage, then that feeling 
has already attained a power that will most probably be fatal to the 
continued existence of the government. On the other hand, the suc- 
cess of its principles will give [)ermanent repose to the country. 

When the bill was yet pending before Congress, the Abolitionists, 
and others who sympathized with them held large meetings, and 
declared that if it became a law they would raise money and hire bod- 
ies of men to go into the new Territory and exclude slavery from it. 
They accordingly formed societies, and collected large sums of money, 
and sent off a great man}' persons to control the elections in Kansas. 
Finding, however, that they were defeated by the settlers in the first 
instance, they continued to forward large bodies of Abolitionists and 
other ruffians, armed with rifles, cannon, and the like weapons. They 
avow it to be their purpose to take possession of and hold the Territory 
by force, without regard to the laws passed by the Legislature. In 
pursuance to this determination, they have pretended to form a State 
Constitution for themselves, and, stimulated by their leaders in the 
northeast, declare it to be their purpose to resist the laws already in 
force in that Territor}'. The President, therefore, in accordance with 
his duties as prescribed in the Constitution, has taken the necessary 
steps to see that the laws are enforced. It is, therefore, not at all 
improbable that a bloody collision may occur in the Territory between 
the traitors employed b}' the Abolitionists and the friends of the Con- 
stitution and laws. That such an occurrence is to be greatly regretted 
cannot be denied by any real patriot. The responsibility must rest on 
the Abolitionists, in spite of the efforts of some of their secret allies to 
charge it on the authors of the Kansas and Nebraska bill. If a body 
of infidels should enter a church and create a disturbance, it might as 
well be said that those who had built the church and attempted to 
worship in it were responsible for the mischief, as that the legislators 
of the last Congress are to be blamed for the efforts of those wrong- 
doers to defeat the operation of the law. 

Whether a collision occurs there are not, in novvise affects the impor- 
tance of the great issue to be determined by the country during the 
next twelve months. The coming presidential election is more impor- 
tant than an}' which has occurred since the organization of the gov- 
ernment. 

Should the party of the Constitution triumph, it is probable that the 
anti-slavery feeling of the North, under the enlightening discussion 
which is taking place, aided by iime for reflection, will subside, and 
allow the government to move on in the even tenor of its way. But 
should our adversaries succeed, it is hardly to be hoped that our system 
would long survive. If any one imagines that they would stop with 
the restoration of the Missouri line, or any other partial measures, he 
is grossly deluded. The objects which the managers have in view is 
the total abolition of slavery, the raising of the negroes to equality 
with us, and the amalgamation of the white and black races, and, by 
consequence, the destruction of our society and the ultimate certain 



(384) 

extinction of the hybrid race. Nothing less than this will satisfy our 
enemies on the other side of the Atlantic. In a late number of the 
Loudon TelajraiyJi such expressions as these occur : 

"The aggressive spirit of the people of the United States requires a)i hum- 
bling, and it is for us to perform the task. England's mission is to complete 
the great work commenced by her in 1834, when she liberated her slaves. 
There are now over three million human beings held in cruel bondage in the 
United States. If, therefore, the United States government deny, and is 
resolved to question the right of Great Britain to her Central American pos- 
sessions, we the people of the British empire, are resolved to strike off the 
shackles from the feet of her 3,000,000 slaves. And there ai'e those among 
us who will sanctify snch a glorious cause." 

There is, too, a complete understanding between our enemies in 
Great Britain and their allies in this country. 

The London News^ another leading British paper, in a late issue 
says truly, in reference to any difficulty that might arise between this 
country and England, that "however strong is the unprincipled appeal 
at present made to the anti-British foeling of the Northern States, that 
feeling is counterbalanced by another, which has grown up within the 
last quarter of a century. The Abolitionists would he with us to a man. 
The hestof them are so now.'''' 

Even in this country, it must be borne in mind that, however mod- 
erate may be many who are now acting with the anti-slavery party, the 
leaders are thoroughly hostile to us. I know a number of the Aboli- 
tion managers, and they are with a few exceptions, not more unprin- 
cipled than they are envious and vindictive. Being equally cowardly, 
mean, and malicious, they intensely hate whatever is honorable and 
manly in the human character, and nothing v/ould be more gratify- 
ing to them than to see the Southern men and women whom they 
have so long villified degraded to the level of the negroes. Long 
observation has satisfied me that euv^^ and malice have more to do 
with the abolition movement than fanaticism. That they will ever 
be able to effect their objects I have no fears. We have a population 
of more than ten millions, or four times as large as the old thirteen colon- 
ies had at the breaking out of the revolution ; while the North, even if 
united, (which it is not likely it would be) would be less strong than Great 
Britain was. Though we should be able to protect ourselves, and 
might have every reason to hope for a long and successful career as 
an independent Republic, yet I hold that we are under the highest 
obligations to use all proper means to preserve the existing Federal 
government. We now, after a period of thirty years of wrong, stand 
in a position of equality with the North, and we owe it to ourselves, 
to those who are to come after us, and to the cause of liberty, truth, 
and honor, never to lose that position. The increasing unanimity of 
feeling among our people, and the growing determination never to 
submit again to be degraded to an inferior station, give the gratifying 
assurance that any successful attempt to reduce us will merely be fol- 
lowed by the destruction of the government making the effort. Yet 
no one can justly charge us with seeking undue advantage in the 



(885) 

Union. At this time the President of the United States is a Northern 
man; so is the President of the Senate, or Vice-President de facto ; so 
likewise is the Secretary of State, the minister at the most important 
foreign court, and also the Speaker of the House of Representatives; 
yet there has heen no complaint of tliese things by us, except as to the 
last, wiio stands on avowed principles of hostility to our section. On 
the contrary, our course has shown that, provided simple justice was 
done us in matters of principle, we were willing to concede all tliat 
could be given up without loss of honor. 

As it is our high duty to make a fair effort to maintain, if possible, 
the existing union of the States, what ought we to do in the approach- 
ing presidential contest? Let us take a survey of the field of action, 
and of the combatants in it. Tlie old Whig party (as, you remember, 
I predicted some years ago would be the case) no longer exists. For 
the last twelve months it has not had friends enough in any one State 
of tlie Union to raise a banner in its name. Its former members have 
either gone into other organizations, or are waiting to take some new 
position. In the North most of them have united with the Aboli- 
tionists and free-soil Democrats, and formed a sectional party which is 
held together mainly by its hostility to the South. In fact, its only 
leading principle is "anti-slavery. It has adopted the designation of 
"Ptepublican party," though it is more commonly called the Black 
Republican party. The latter designation is the more appropriate, not. 
only because, while it is devoted to the elevation of the negroes, it 
ignores, disregards, and contemns the rights of white men, but also, 
because it is a counterfeit. Mr. Jefferson once said that the old Fed- 
eralists would attempt to get into power by stealing the name of 
Republican, and his prediction has been verified in our day. The 
leading principle of our revolutionary struggle, and also that of the 
old Republicans of Jefferson's day, was the question of the right of 
the peo{)le in each locality to govern themselves; and this great privi- 
lege is now denied by this party which seeks at tlie same time to 
deprive the white men of the Territories of the right of self-govern- 
ment, and to put negroes on a level with them, and thus to raise the 
la;ter to a higher station than God Almighty has fitted them for. If 
their policy could be carried into practice, you and I know, fellow- 
citizens, that the experiment would merely end in the degradation and 
destruction of the white race. The candidate of such a party whoever 
lie may be, can have no claims to your support. 

A second association, whose candidate is already in the field, is the 
Know-nothing or American party. Twelve months ago it seemed to 
be formidable in its organization and numbers. When assembled in 
convention, however, last June, it is well known that, on the adoption 
of its platform condemning further slavery agitation, the delegates of 
twelve Northern States, wherein its strength chiefly lay, seceded from 
the party. In the recent convention of last month, however, the.se 
same delegations came back, and succeeded, by a large majority, in 
repealing and striking out the identical section which they had objected 
to, and obliged Southern members, in their turn, to leave the conven- 
tion. It then nominated Fillmore and Donelson for the first and second 
49 



( ^8Q ) 

offices of the government. Mr. Fillmore, it is conceded, has no strength 
in the North. This is in part owing to the fact that he, in accordance 
with a plain constitutional provision, placed his signature to the fugi- 
tive-slave act, and subsequently, in obedieiice to his official oath, en- 
deavored to carry it out. He has been so generally repudiated, that I 
have not heard the first individual express the opinion that he can get 
a single electoral vote in a free State. In the South he has stood on 
much better ground; but his position on the pending questions is un- 
known, and he is essentially weakened by being the nominee of the 
Know-nothings, should he accept. In fact, if he be a member of the 
order, as seems to be established, he would, if elected, be bound by 
his oath, to carry out the wislies of the grand council, in which the 
North has the control. Waiving, however these objections, there is 
another which is controlling. Even if Mr. Fillmore should carr}^ the 
several Southern States claimed for him, he could nottherebj^ succeed. 
The only effect of dividing the Southern vote would be to throw the 
election into the House of Representatives. The recent election of 
Speaker by that body shows what would be the result of a presiden- 
tial contest. If the so-called national Know-nothings had voted for 
our candidate, Governor Aiken, he would have been certainly elected.' 
Even if he had received on the last ballot the five votes of that party 
which he did get on the day previous, he would have beaten his com- 
jDctitor, Mr. Banks, an avowed Know-nothing — not to speak of three 
others, two of whom were from slave States, who might have been 
counted on. Should the presidential election devolve on the House, 
there will either be no election at all, or the Black Bepublicans must 
succeed. It seems quite probable, therefore, that the Northern dele- 
gates in the Know-nothing convention permitted Mr. Fillmore to be 
nominated to effect this result. As they were able to repeal the old 
platform, they evidently had strength enough to have defeated him, 
and it seems probable that they got out of the way, or connived at his 
nomination, to give the Black Republican candidate a double chance, 
so that, if he should fail before the people, he might succeed in the 
House. As votes, therefore, given for Mr. Fillmore, under such cir- 
cumstances, would merely be thrown away, it is not probable that, even 
in the South, he will carry a single State. 

The great antagonist, therefore, of the anti-slavery party must be 
the nominee of the Democracy. That party has been essentially mod- 
ified within the last few years. In its Convention of 1852 it adopted 
for the first time a recognition of the resolutions of the Virginia Legis- 
lature of 1798, the embodiment of the creed of the old Republican party 
of Jefferson ; and, subsequentl}^ it has affirmed most strongly, on all 
occasions, principles sustaining the rights of the South and the equality 
of the States. While thus acting, however, during the late struggles, 
so many of its former members left it that it is conceded that it would 
have been beaten in almost every State in the Union but for the assist- 
ance of patriotic Whigs who have marched to its support. Encour- 
aged by these accessions, standing firmly on the principles of the gen- 
uine Republican party of the olden time, and conscious that the des- 
tiny of the country depends on its action, it is marshalling its ranks, 



i 387 ) 

and is ready to go into battle with unusual ardor, and a confidence 
worthy the great cause in which it is engaged. Is it not entitled to 
the support of all conservative and patriotic men? 

Let us, fellow-citizens, examine this point calmly and fairly. I will 
first address myself to the members of the old Whig party. You, as 
such, are, of course, not under the slightest obligation to go for the 
nominee of the Know-nothing convention, because that convention 
denounced both the Whig and Democratic [)arties as corrupt, and pro- 
claimed that it had " arisen on the ruins of both and in spite of their 
opposition." But some of you may feel reluctant, after having acted 
against the Democratic party so long, to go into a union with it. To 
show that this can be done with propriety, and without any loss of self- 
respect, let us recur to the past action of our own party in the State. 
After the right to elect the Governor was conferred on the people, the 
first nominee of the Whigs was Edward B. Dudley, who had formerly 
been an old Jackson Democrat. Their next nominee for the same 
office was John M. Morehead, who used to declare in his speeches that 
he was one of the old .Jackson ca[)tains, and that he had three times 
been on the Jackson ticket as elector. Surely, when the old Whig 
party took up these men and elected them, it did not suppose that they 
had done wrong in going from one party to another. The two last 
senators representing the Whigs were Messrs. Mangum and Badger. 
But Mr. Mangum was originally elected senator by the Jackson party, 
and after he changed ground and united with the Whigs, he was twice 
re-elected by them to the Senate. Mr. Badger, too, was at one time 
chairman of the Jackson central committee of the State, but after he 
joined the Whigs this did not prevent their twice electing him to the 
Senate. These things show that, in the judgment of the Whig party, 
a man's changing his associations from good motives did not render 
him unworthy of the highest confidence. When Mr. Clay was before 
the people of North Carolina in 1832, he only received some five thous- 
and votes ; yet in 1844 ho carried the State by a decided majority — 
showing that about half of its citizens had changed their position. I 
might multiply instances as to both parties in all the States. It is the 
highest duty of a patriot to act according to the existing circumstances 
for the good of his countrv. 

But if some of you should feel a strong repugnance to act with the 
Democratic party, remember that, when you were most opposed to it, 
Martin Van Buren was its executive champion, Thomas H. Benton 
was its Congressional leader, and Francis P. Blair the editor of its offi- 
cial central organ. These men are now, with many others like them, 
outside of the Democratic party, and hostile to it. Will you join these 
persons in making war on the true men? This is the position of 
things; that tlie old Democratic party is divided now, and you must, 
therefore, decide whether you will act with the free-soil wing or the 
sound republicans. This is the real point for you to decide. Will 
you allow old prejudices to influence you on so great an issue ? If 
you were, as jurors, about to decide the pettiest dispute between two of 
3^our neighbors, you would be ashamed to let prejudice against one of 



(888) 

them influence you in the slightest degree; and when the great inter- 
ests of the country are at stake, will you be less fair? 

I would, in tlie next place, address a few words to you who are 
members of the American or Know-Nothing party. Twelve months 
ago there seemed to be a gulf almost impassable between you and those 
with whom I am acting. In the first place, yours was a secret political 
organization, which required its members to deny knowledge and con- 
ceal certain truths. Tins was regarded by us as demoralising and 
mi^^chievous in the extreme, but the objection is said to have been 
removed by the abolition of all secrec}'. In the next place, your mem- 
bers were bound by obligations to vote as the councils, &c., might 
direct; and this was regarded by us as directl}' hostile to the right of 
sufirage in the citizen necessary to self-government; but this has, at 
least, in many places, been abrogated, and all tests and obligations are 
said to have been annulled. A third great objection was the inter- 
ference in religion in the proscription of Roman Catholics, &c. ; but 
this, too, has generally been abandoned ; and the last grand council at 
Philadelphia, by a majority vote, admitted the Roman Catholic dele- 
gates from Louisiana. These three great barriers have, therefore, 
already been broken down. What renjains, then, of your peculiar 
views? An amendment by Congress of the naturalization laws. 
Admitting, for argument, that this may be a matter of importance, 
surely you will agree with me that it is not to be brought in com- 
parison with a question of the existence of the government itself. 
Had yoa not all rather that our system should move on as formerly 
under the existing naturalization laws than be brought into serious 
peril? What would you think of a man who, when his dwelling had 
taken fire, instead of attempting to extinguish the flame, should occupy 
himself with removing insects from it? Ought we to imitate the 
conduct of the Jews, who, when their city was besieged by the Roman 
array, continued to wrangle and dispute with each other until it was 
taken and destroyed ? 

But you say that you do not wish foreigners to hold office in this 
country. In point of fact, they do not hold as many of the offices as 
their {)roportional numbers might entitle them to. After all, however, 
is it not more important that the offices should be filled with persons 
who will discharge the duties than that any particular set of people 
shall have them? How many of the fifteen thousand voters in our 
district are likely to hold office ? I have no doubt but that at least five 
hundred men were induced to join your organization in our district by 
such representation, and perhaps no one of them will realize the pos- 
session af any desirable office. The truth is, this clamor is kept up 
by a few designing office-seekers in the country, who hope, by these 
means, lo derive advantage; whereas the great body of the tax-paying 
people have no interest beyond a good administration of official duties. 
Certain politicians are clamorous against some of the appointments 
of the present administration. It may be true that the President, like 
some of his predecessors, has made a mistake in this respect; but is 
this to be weighed against the bold and patriotic stand maintained by 
him and his friends in defence of the rights of the weaker sections of 



(889) 

tlie Union ? I know, gentlemen, that many of you feel politically hos- 
tile to me, on account of our past collisions, but you cannot charge me 
with having ever deceived you. Recollect that more than twelve months 
ago I told you in my speeches that the Know-nothing party would be 
broken up and destroyed soon after the meeting of this Congress. 
What was then predicted is now history. I told you that the body of 
its members from the North were anti-slavery men, and that their 
action would drive you out of the party, and earnestly exhorted you to 
await the developments of one year, and in the meantime to stand 
aloof from the organization. Do you not wish that you had taken my 
advice? I do not expect you to admit this to me; but I put it to your 
own consciences, when you are in communion with that Supreme 
Being your council professes to reverence, do you not regret your con- 
nection with the order? Perhaps you may feel offended with me even 
for this, just as, formerly-, some complained of my announcing in ad- 
vance the destruction of the old Whig party, or of my public declara- 
tions just before the last presidential election that Grneral Scott could 
not get more than four States, as the event afterwards proved. But 
you cannot charge me with the want of any fairness and candor; and, 
as on all former occasions, I now speak to you with the frankness and 
directness that becomes a freeman addressing his peeis. Remember 
that, if earnest, I am asking nothing for myself. On the contrary, 
when a candidate before you, I have scorned to make any appeal to 
your favor. On such occasions you luive complained that my tone 
W'as detiant and denunciatory. But 1 ivill appea] to you for the life of 
the Constitution. 

With respect to those persons who formerly acted with the Demo- 
cratic party, I can see no reason for their now withholding their sup- 
[t(:)rt from it. It has thrown off the free-soilers in the North, and 
gotten rid of some bad elements in the South, and now stands fairly 
as an organization b}- the rights of all sections of tlie Union. In fact, 
its principles of action are those of the old Republican party of the 
days of Jefferson, which meet with universal approbation in our 
portion of the confederacy. 

We are called upon, fellow citizens, one and all, to make a manly 
stand for the Constitution and the rights of our section. If beaten, we 
we ma}^ be forced to declare independence, to maintain eciuality and 
lioiior. In submission, we should have in prospect the condition of a 
conquered province, with no rights but such as were accorded by the 
mercy of the victors. As those who lead our assailants are the meanest 
and most contemptible of men, so they propose the destruction of our 
state of societ\', and the lowest degree of social degradation known to 
humanity. 

When 3^ou are about to decide an issue of such moment, heed not 
the words of a few mercenary traitors among us. They have marks 
upon them by which they may b*e known. They are the men who see 
no merit in the past sacrifices and eminent services of the patriotic 
Cass, so happil}^ termed the "Nestor of the Senate." They witness, 
without one cheer of applause, the unceasing blows of the heavy 
battle-axe of Douglas, wielded in our defence from morn till eve, and 



( 390 ) 

from year to year, untiringly and continually, as the billows of the 
ocean dash against its shore. They chuckle like fiends when it seems 
that.Franklin Pierce and the granite Democracy of New Hampshire 
are about to be borne down by our enemies, so as no longer to be able 
to shield us from danger. But the true men in t!je Northeast, thougli 
for a time overpowered, return to the contest with renewed zeal. 
Remembering that, though the British armies once had possession of 
their territories, the spirits of their ancestors were unbroken, and that 
the revolution failed not, they rally again and boldly proclaim that 
the battle for the Constitution "has only begun." Pennsylvania, 

Collecting all Jier might, dilated stands, 
Like TeuciiiTe or Atlasi, 

across the entire breadth of the way, and says to fanaticism and treason, 
"Hitherto shalt thou come but no farther, and liere shall thy proud 
waves be stayed." The young giants of the Northwest, lamenting 
that they were not old enough to have marched under the banner of 
Washington, press eagerly forward to take the front of the column if 
any of the Old Thirteen should falter in the hour of trial. On every 
side there are coming up the brave and true for the decisive struggle. 
Many a party banner has risen and stooped again; but there is a 
flag which has never yet gone down before the eyes of mortal man. 
It first shone in the sunlight on the 4th of July, 1776 ; and though it 
wavered in the dark hours of the Revolution, it went not down, but 
kept its place, and still has kept, through many a stormy period 
since, on land and sea. The old flag of the Re[)ublic now looms high 
over the field of danger, summoning its friends to gather around it. 
There is onl}^ one of the political organizations that can stand under 
that banner. And will 3'ou leave the Democratic party, weakened in 
former contest for the right, to fight this great battle unaided, and 
alone to triumph, or alone to die, in such a cause? Where will you 
be found, gentlemen when such a field is to be fought and such a oan- 
ner is to be upheld ? Look back into the past, and see that in the olden 
time the enemy approached our section only to be repulsed. The 
mountain peaks which looked down on the rapid flight and destruc- 
tion of Ferguson's army, still stand silent but impressive monitors. 
Though, of the bold riders who dashed through their gorges and for- 
ests, only the last linger yet a little wliile, the memor^^ of their deeds 
is immortal, and will again kindle the flames of patriotism to future 
trium})hs. A victory in this contest saves the Constitution from 
danger, overwhelms its enemies, and gives the highest assurance that 
our magnificent ocean bound Republic will continue for ages to run a 
career so bright and glorious as to challenge the wonder and admira- 
tion of the world. 

Respectfully, 



City of Washington, March IG, 1856. 



T. L. CLINGMAN. 



(391 



After Mr. Buchanan's election, I had a conversation with him in regard to the 
foreign policy of his administration, to commence on the coming fourth of March. 
I regretted to find that he had weakened greatly, and did not appear then willing 
to stand by the policy of the Ostend manifesto. In fact, on my praising it in high 
terms to him, he seemed disposed to qualify it. and rather to explain away some of 
his strongest points. I told him that I would, before the close of the session, speak 
on it, and that I felt confident that it could be placed in a most favorable light 
before the American people. In tlie hope that he miglit be strengthened in liis feel- 
ings and induced to maintain bold American ground the speech which follows was 
made: 

SPEECH 

ON BRITISH POLICY IN CENTRAL AMERICA AND CUBA, 
DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEB- 
RUARY 5, 1857. 

The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union — 

Mr. Clingman said : 

Mr. Chairman : My purpose in rising to address the committee to-day 
is to call the attention of gentlemen to a subject of some practical im- 
portance at this time, and of great moment in the future of this country. 
One of its points is already understood to be undergoing examination in 
the other end of this capitol ; and I hope some of these daj's to bring an- 
other important branch of it to the consideration of the American Con- 
gress. Before referring directly to these points, however, I desire to of- 
fer some general observations which nevertheless have a direct bearing 
on them. 

Much is said, sir, of fillibr.stering ; and when the British newspapers 
read us lectures on our propensities in that respect, some of our own peo- 
ple hold up their hands in horror at the prospect presented of the moral 
depravity of the country. It is undoubtedly true, that since the com- 
mencement of our existence as a nation we have extended our territory 
from a little less than one million of square miles to about three millions. 
How stands the case with Great Britain ? The whole island, including 
England, Scotland, and Wales, has an area of eighty-nine thousand 
square miles, and yet the entire dominion governed by this island in- 
cludes territory to the extent of nearly eight million square miles ! While 
we have added two hundred per cent, to our territory, she has acquired 
about nine thousand per cent. We have increased three-fold in area, she 
ninety-fold ! And ^^et she is shocked while witnessing our rapacity for 
acquisition, and complains that the American eagle is a "fast fowl" — a 
greed}' bird. What, then, shall we say of the appetite of the British 
lion ? Why, her possessions in North America alone are more extensive 
than all the territory of the United States. Iler Australian dominions 
are themselves, likewise, greater in area than all we hold. In the East 
Indies, on a territory larger than the settled parts of the United States, 
she controls despotically a population of one hundred and forty millions. 



(392) 

Besides these, she has her provinces, islands, and military and naval sta- 
tions in every sea, and on every shore. It used to be the boast of Spain 
that the sun did not set upon her empire ; but whichever side of the globe 
be turned to that luminary, and at any hour of the twenty-four, it never 
fails to send its rays down on a section of the British empire larger than 
all the United States. ISTor have her efforts to expand her domain been 
relaxed in view of her immense acquisitions, but on the contrary they are 
at this very time being pressed forward with great zeal, both by the gov- 
ernment and its subjects. 

They denounce us for our alleged failures to maintain a strict neutrality 
towards other cmintries ; but this Government was the first to pass laws 
on that subject: and our statutes are more strict, I think, and have been 
better observed, than those of most countries. In Great Britain they are 
liable at any time to be suspended by the wdll of the C-rown ; and, in 
fact, bodies of many thousand men have been organized without objec- 
tion in and about London, to carry on wars in the Spanisli Peninsula and 
elsewhere, while the Government professed to be at peace with the par- 
ties assailed. Indeed, companies have been cliartered by the Parliament 
to carry on what would in tiiese days be called iillibusfcering operations. 
The East India and Hudson's Bay Companies are exam])les. The j)eo- 
pleof the United States are assailed because a few individuals have gone 
down into Central America to aid Walker. Wjiat would they, then, say 
of us, if Congress should charter a company, the " Transit Company," 
for example, and furnish it men and money to conquer and hold Central 
America for our benefit ? And yet such an act would be following the 
example of Great Britain in chartering and u])iiolding the East India 
Company, and enabling it to conquer and ensla\e a people five times as 
numerous as tlie whole population of the United States. 

Our territorial expansion has indeed been remarkable ; but so has been 
our progress in all respects. Our tonnage equals — probably exceeds — 
that of Great Britain herself We have changed the system of maritime 
law for the world ; and Britain no longer boasts of possessing the empire 
of the seas. 

Already has been verified, in part, the prediction of Pownal, the sa- 
gacious Englishman, who nearly a century ago said : 

" America will come to market in her own shipping, and will claim the 
ocean as common— will claim a navigation restrained by no laws but the law 
of nations, reformed as the rising crisis requires." 

" America will seem every day to approach nearer and nearer to Europe." 

" The independence of America is fixed as a fate. She is mistress of her 
own fortune — knows that it is so ; and actuate that power which she feels, 
both so as to establish her own system, and to change the system of Europe." 

" America will become the arbitress of the commercial world, and perha^JS 
the mediatrix of peace and of the political business of the world." 

So remarkable has been our progress that these wonderful prophecies 
seem like the offspring of inspiration. Great Britain has herself, too, 
by her conduct, verified another striking prediction, that the sovereigns 
of Europe — 



(393 ) 

*'Whent]iey sliall find the system of this now empire not only obstrncting 
but superseding the ohl systems of Europe, and crossing upon the effects of 
all their settled maxims and accustomecl measures, they will call uj^on their 
ministei-s and wise men, ' Come, curse me this people, for they are too mighty 
for me ;' their statesmen will be dumb ; but the spirit of truth will answer : 
'How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?'" 

Great Britain has exhibited the feelings here depicted, and has re- 
sisted our progress with a perseVeranee, a skill, and an energy creditable 
to her ambitious sagacity, if not to her justice and magnanimity. Lat- 
terly she has directed her efforts, in the first place, to prevent ottr ac- 
quiring territory ; and, secondly, to render that territory, if acquired, a 
source of weakness rather than strength. It is to her policy on these 
two points that I now, Mr. Chairman, ask the attention of the House. 

Holding as she does herself the entire northern half of this continent, 
she easily bars our progress in that direction ; on our eastern and west- 
ern borders are the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Our only field of ex- 
tension, therefore, lies to the south, and her efforts are perseveringly and 
energetically directed to that quarter. 

The Central American question has been prominent before the coun- 
try for some time past. Great Britain acquired her foothold there in 
direct contravention of her treaties with Spain, to whom the whole of 
that region originally belonged. In 1763, however, she agreed by treaty 
to demolish her fortifications, &c., and cease to interfere with the rights 
of Spain, &c. As this treaty failed to secure the country, however, from 
British occupation, a more stringent one was made in 1783 ; and three 
years later, in 1786, additional articles were ratified. As these are all 
substantially the same, I read a clause from that of 1786 : 

" ' Article 3. Although no other advantages have hitherto been in ques- 
tion, except that of cutting wood for dyeing, yet his Catholic Majesty, as a 
greater proof of his disposition to oblige the King of Great Britain, will 
grant to the English the liberty of cutting all other woods, vnthout even ex- 
cepting mahogany, as well as gathering all the fruits and produce of the 
earth, pui-ely natural and uncultivated, which may, besides being carried 
away in their natural state, become an object of utility or commerce, whether 
for food or for manufactures ; but it is expressly agreed, that this stipulation 
is never to be used as a pretext for establishing in that country any planta- 
tions of sugar, coffee, cocoa, or other like articles ; or any fabric or manu- 
facture by means of mills, or other machines whatsoever, since all lands in 
question being indisputably acknowledged to belong of right to the Crown 
of Spain, no settlements of that kind, or the population which Avould follow, 
can be allowed. The English shall be allowed to transport and convey all 
such wood and other produce of the i)lace, in its natural and uncultivated 
state, down the rivers to the sea, but without ever going beyond the limits 
which are prescribed to them by the stipulations above granted, and without 
thereby taking an opportunity of ascending the said rivers, beyond their 
bounds, into the countries belonging to Spain.' 

"The seventh article of the same treaty again provides for the 'entire pre- 
servation of the rights of the Spanish sovereignty over the country, in which 
is granted to the English only the privilege of making use of the wood of 
various kinds;' and it goes on to stipulate that the English 'shall not medi- 
tate any more extensive settlements' than the one defined." 
50 



(394) 

It would be difBcult to make a strono^er stipulation against British en- 
croacliittents than is here contained. Yet, though its enforcement was 
attempted to be secured by periodical visits of Spanish commissioners, 
it, like its predecessors, proved wholly ineffectual. As late as the year 
1814, all these old treaties were renewed between Great Britain and 
Spain, and were at no time abandoned by the latter ; and yet, in the 
face of such solemn engagements, the former has established her present 
position in Central America. For a full detail of the means she has used, 
I refer gentlemen to a work published in 1850 by Frederick Crowe, a 
Baptist missionary from England to Honduras and Guatemala. With 
the indignation of an honest, upright man who blushes for his country, 
he details the expedients and shifts to which British officials have re- 
sorted to obtain the control and actual dominion of Honduras and Mos- 
quito coast, in such passages as the following : 

" Nor is tliis the only national disgrace and absurd exposure which has re- 
sulted from the Biitisli pi-otectorate on the Mosquito shore. Several writers 
have already noticed the humiUating scenes to wliich the coronation of the 
present line of Waikna monarchs have given occasion; and all the witnesses, 
except, perhaps, some whose sense of decorum and moral rectitude were lit- 
tle or not at all superior to that of the i)oor deluded Indians themselves, con- 
cur in bi-anding these ceremonies, not only as ridiculous in the extreme, but 
as disgusting exhibitions of human de,2,'radation, and impious profanations of 
the name of God, which has been wickedly associated with them. Indeed, 
it is not a little surprising that Government officials — civil, mihtar}^, and ec- 
clesiastical — laying claim to reason and sensibility, (to speak of no loftier en- 
dowments,) could at any time be found willin.g to lend themselves to mock- 
eries so puerile, and to deceptions so palpable and gross. But some such 
have ever been found ready to take a public part in the desecrations of the 
so-called religious forms, and in the name and on behalf of royalty, to place 
in the least imposing light imaginable, 

" 'The low ambition and the pride of kings.' 

" On such occasions, British men-of-war have been employed to convey the 
royal person, and the naked and barefooted nobles composing his court, to 
and from Jamaica, or British Honduras. A titled colonial bishop has been 
in requisition to consecrate and anoint with holy oil the semi-savage, the tool 
of governmental schemes of national aggrandizement. The various native 
lords, generals, admirals, and captains, have been clad for the occasion in 
gay regimentals, which they wore shirtless on their tawny skins, and so cari- 
catured the 'soft raiment' thai even the pencil of a Cruikshanks could 
scarcely do justice to their attitudes and grimaces while writhing under the 
confinement of braided coats, military stocks, tight boots, &c., &g. 

" The coronation of King Robert took place at Belize on the 23d of April, 
1825. None of the above elements were then wanting, except that the part 
of the Archbishop of Canterbury was performed by tlje chaplain of the set- 
tlement in the room of his superior, whose absence was more than atoned for 
by other details of the pageant. On this occasion it was deemed necessary 
to qualify tlie Waikna nobility for the part assigned them, viz: swearing al- 
legiance to their King, by first placing them within the pale of the national 
establishment. Consequently the ' ministration of baptism to such as are of 
riper years' was superadded to the ' coronation service,' and the poor savages 



(895) 

having assented with becoming docility to all they were asked, were deemed 
capable of taking an oath, and their ecclesiastical disabilities were once for 
all removed. Mr. Henry Dunn informs us, upon the testimony of an eye- 
witness of this inicpiitous imposture, that ' they displayed a total ignorance of 
tlie meaning (!) of the ceremony; and when asked to give their names, took 
the titles of Loi-d Rodney, Lord Nelson, or some other celebrated olHcei', and 
seemed grievously disapi)ointed when told they could only be baptized by 
simple Christian (?) names': and he adds, that 'after this solemn mockery 
had l)eeu concluded, the whole assembly adjourned to a large school-room, to 
eat the coronation dinner, where the usual healths were drunk, and these 
poor creatures all intoxicated with rum — a suitable conclusion to a farce as 
blasphemous and wicked as ever disgraced a Cliristian country. '(!)" 

He describes an interview witli another of these kings, in the follow- 
ing passage : 

" ' Skipper Mudge, who arrived at this port fi'om Honduras last week, in 
his smack N'anry^ i-eports that he had an interview, before sailing, with his 
Majesty the King of the Musquitoes. His Majesty wore a splendid cocked- 
hat and a red sasij, and had very large gilt spurs buckled about his ancles; 
but I regret to sa}' that the remainder was, as the painters say, without dra- 
pery. We must make allowance, however, for the difference of customs and 
climate. His Majesty, who cannot be more than twenty years old, was slight- 
ly intoxicated. His suite consisted of a one-eyed drummer-boy, and two 
gentlemen with fifes, one of whom acted as an interpreter. The King of the 
Mosquitoes received Skipper Mudge seated on an empty whisky cask. He 
motioned to the skipper to take a seat on the ground, or wherever he chose.' 
The writer then goes on to describe the further proceedings of the interview, 
in the course of which his Majesty's laughter having been excited, the cask 
rolled from inider him, and he fell to the ground. This is the monarch 
whose coi'onation at Jamaica figured in last year's (English) estimates." 

Such are the means, as detailed by one of her own subjects, that Great 
Britain has used to get control of the Mos(]uito coast. 

lleferrino; to a charg-e made against the Enp'lisli movements in Hon- 
duras, Mr. Crowe says : 

" In order to judge of the truth or falsehood of the charge of rapacity, let 
the reader brifiy review the facts upon which it is founded. 

" With no other claim than what is afforded by the treaties with Spain, 
we have possessed ourselves of the actual sovereignty of territories on the 
northern shore of the Bay of Honduras, extending over about twenty thous- 
and square miles, or twelve million eight hundred thousand acres, exclusive 
of islands and keys. 

" We have taken and retaken the important Island of Roatan no less than 
five times, and are now exercising the right of sovereignty over its fertile 
lands, which extend at the least to one hundred and fifty square miles, or 
ninety-six thousand acres. 

" By virtue of a late treaty with one of the contending parties in Yucatan, 
and on the score of assistance afforded for the pacification of the peninsula 
daring the war of races, which is still raging there, we have obtained an ex- 
tension of limits on the northern boundary of our Central American empire, 
extending from the Rio Hondo to the port and town of Salamanca de Baca- 



( 396 ) 

lar, thus including about three thousand six hundred square miles, or two 
million three hundred and four thousand acres of additional territory. Alto- 
gether, making, on a moderate calculation, full twenty-three thciTsand seven 
hundred and fifty square miles, or fifteen million two hundred thousand 
acres — which it nearly, if not quite, four times the extent of the Island of 
Jamaica. 

" To the occupation of these extensive tracts of country maist be added 
the j:>)'otect ion of the Mosquito shore, over which our Government exercises 
as much control as over its own possessions, though in a somewhat less di- 
rect manner, or rathei", by a more direct course. In addition to four hundred 
miles of sea-coast from the lloman river to the San Juan del Norte, we have 
lately put forth a claim, in the name of the Waikna monarch, to about one 
hundred miles more of sea-coast to the southward of the San Juan, extending 
through the State of Costa Rica and a part of the Province of Veragua, as 
far as Chiriqui Lagoon ; titus including altogether at least thirty-scA^en thous- 
and square miles, or twenty-three million six hundred and eighty-three thous- 
and acres of protectorate, including the occupation of Greytown. 

''Thus, as the actual result up to the present time, exclusive of such smaller 
items as Roatan and Tigre Islands, we have a sum total of sixty thousand 
six hundred square miles, or thirty-eight million seven hundred and eighty- 
four thousand acres, over which we exercise full control, being nearly a thii-d 
of all Central America, and moi-e than two-thirds the area of Great Britain. 

" Let the reader now decide whether or not we nmst appear to the natives 
in the light of 'a rapacious nation.' To them it matters little whether our 
encroachments and our occupation of their country be defended on the plea 
of a ' right of conquest,' founded on the successful defense of St. George's 
Key in 1798, or whether we are unprincipled and shameless enough openly 
to take advantage of circumstances, by replying to the remonstrances of the 
neighboring republics, that our treaties were made with Spain and not with 
them ; and to the claims of Spain, that they have no further dominion over 
these territories since their late colony became independent. 

" The natives cannot but consider these territories as a part of their coun- 
try, which ought to be as free from the dominion of Euroi)ean monarchical 
government as they are themselves. It must weigh little with them whether 
we ground our claim to the Island of Roatan upon its first practical seizure, 
or on the fact that some fifty years ago we located upon it the I'emnant of a 
nation which we had well nigh exterminated in despoiling them of their native 
isles. The Central States, as well as the British government, know it to be, 
commercially, the key to the navigation of the Bay of Honduras, and must 
feel it inconveniently near to their own shores, while in the hands of a power 
so aggressive and so much their superior. In the magnanimous protection 
extended over the Mosquito shore, and in the residence of Mr. Coates, as 
British Commissioner to the Waikna King, they can discover no benevolence 
or philanthropy. If they had been inclined to forget the former attacks 
made upon the River San Juan del Norte, they could not now be expected to 
view with placid indifference our occupation of its best port, which commands 
the line of oceanic communication, at the very time that this grand project 
is most likely to be realized. 

" In the occupation of British Honduras and Roatan, the protectorate of 
the Mosquito shore, the annexation of Tigre Island, the seizure of the i)orts 
and inlets in the Gulf of Fonseca, the blockade of the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts of Salvador and Honduras, in the beai'ing of British officials, and in 
the tone and tenor of diplomatic relations, the Central Americans can per- 
ceive little besides ' La loi et le raison du plus fort' — the law and the logic of 



(397) 

the stronger party ; and what wonder that, writhing under the grasp of the 
iron hand of oppression, tliey should mutter in their torture, ' Rapacious na- 
tion !' ' Vandals of the age !' " 

It was thus that, in defiance of all treaty obligations, Great Britain 
advanced steadily towards the occupation of Central America until the 
discovery of the gold mines in California. At once there was a rush of 
our people towards that land, across the Isthmus and tlirough Central 
America. It instantly became manifest that this whole i-egion was in 
danger of becoming Americanized, and that our eagle, in his flight from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific, would there find a resting-place. Up to this 
time. Great Britain had the advantage, but suddenly the scale Mas turn- 
ed in our favor. In passing from one part of our tei-ritory to another, 
we were likely to occupy the intermediate ground. England at once 
changed her tactics. 

In the year 1850 our Cal)inet was more feeble and imbecile, as a whole, 
than any that the country has ever been blessed with, and, as such, it 
was easily entrapped by British diph)macy. The so-called Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty was the result. It provided that the United States and 
Great Britain would neither, dii'ectly nor indirectly, " occupy, or fortify, 
or colonize, or assume or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa 
Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America." This treaty, 
according to the construction put upon it by Great Britain, which she 
has maintained in fact, left her in the full possession of the territory 
tliei'o which she had ab'eady seized in violation of her stipulations with 
S]Kun. In substance, therefore, it simply declared that, as Great Britain 
had possession of the principal part of the coast and the territory most 
valuable, she should continue to hold it; while the United States, having 
nothing, agreed that they would acquire nothing there. As long as this 
treaty should stand, so long would Great Britain have to populate, im- 
prove, and fortify the territory held by her. When she had thus become 
so strong there as to be able to control the destinies of that whole region, 
if the treaty were annulled, the United States, not having one foot of 
ground, would have been in no condition to contend with her, and hence 
Central America would inevitably have become one of her possessions as 
completely as Canada is at this day, 

I see it stated in the newspapers, Mr. Chairman, that there is a pro- 
ject on foot to amend this treaty. Though the ])articular additions and 
qualifications suggested may be improvements on the original treaty in 
some respects, 3'et, as they rest on a foundation which is unsound and 
treacherous, I hope they will never be sanctioned by this Government as 
published. The orio-inal Clayton-Bulwer treaty must be got rid of. Pos- 
sibly it might be well toTidd a proviso, that at the end of five years, for 
example, the whole, both of the original and supplemental articles, should 
become void. We might afford to submit to a bad treaty for a time, 
with a certainty that we were soon to be relieved from it. 

Emboldened by a success in this movement which could hardly have 
been looked for, the next step in English diplomacy was the proposition 
for the triyjartite convention in relation to the Island of Cuba. The 
British Government, in conjunction with that of France, on the 23d of 
April, 1852, proposed to the United States that the three Governments 



(898) 

should jointly and severally agree that no one of them should ever ac- 
quire the Island of Cuba. The administration of Mr. Fillmore declined 
the arrangement ; and the dispatch of Mr. Everett, the then Secretary 
of State, has been mush commended for its ability. That the reasons 
why the United States could not be expected to consent to such an ar- 
rangement are ably and handsomely stated, no one can question ; l)ut it 
is due to truth that I shall say that, in my judgment, our Government 
let itself down by consenting to argue such a question. The reply the 
proposition merited might have been given with far more force and 
justice in ten sentences. It might have been said in answer, that if Great 
Britain and France chose to suggest to the United States that neither 
of the three Governments should acquire additional territory in any part 
of the world, as such a proposition would have the appearance of mutu- 
ality and fairness, the Government of the United States would take it 
into consideration ; but that the proposition actually submitted did not 
merit to be entertained at all. At that very time, sir, Great Britain was 
actively extending her dominions in Asia and elsewhere, and France was 
pressing her conquests in Africa ; and in the face of these things they 
had the modesty to propose that the United States should agree not to 
acquire a territory on her borders, eminently desirable to her, and lying 
in the very direction in which alone she could hope for extension. Was 
there ever a more impudent proposition? and did not our Government 
lower itself by condescending to argue it ? 

But having failed to induce the United States to agree never to ac- 
(^[uire the island, Great Britain determined to ruin it, so that whenever 
it did fall into our hands, it should at least prove worthless. In the con- 
duct of wars in barbaric times, when a ])rovince could no longer be held 
against an invader, it was not uncommon for those who were compelled 
to abandon it to burn its cities, destroy its bridges and aqueducts, poison 
its wells, and waste its fields, so that the conqueror might find its pos- 
session an incumbrance rather than an advantage. Such is the policy 
which Great Britain has deliberately adopted with reference to Cuba 
and the West India Islands. Seeing that, in the natural course of things, 
they will probably become ours, she has resolved that, if not entirely 
ruined, (for to do this is beyond her power,) they shall at least be so 
damaged as greatly to reduce their value to us. 

Early in the present session, a gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Eth- 
eridge] introduced a resolution denouncing in strong terms any sugges- 
tion in favor of reopening the African slave trade. It was followed by 
the resolution of my friend from South Carolina, [Mr. Orr,] likewise de- 
cidedly adverse to such restoration, which the House with great una- 
nimity adopted. 

Well, sir, about that very time the newspapers were bringing to our 
notice such paragraphs as these. I read from the Daily Globe which 
was laid on our desks on the morning of the 16th of December last : 

" The New York Journal of Commerce has a letter from Havana, stating 
that the African slave trade is flourishing there without check, and that there 
are large and increasing importations of Chinese, a Spanish ship having just 
arrived with three hundred and twenty, and seven hundred and sixty-five 
having been sold during the previous week, at from $170 to $190 per head," 



(899) 

In the Union of January 1, I find the following paragraph : 

" The CooLY Tkade. — Extract of a letter from Havana, dated the 25th 
ultimo : 'Another cargo of three hundred and nineteen Asiatics has ai-rived 
hei-e, decimated from the quantity embarked at Amoy during a voyage of 
two hundred and twent)'-six days. They arrived on the 22d by a Holland 
ship, IJellona, Sciiver, consigned to Torreis, Puentes & Co. They have been 
already assigned to purchasers by the speculators in this trade at $170, and 
some of them resold at $190 each.'" 

Tliese specimens are sufiicient ; and from them it seemg that in sight 
of our own c«ast, ]niblicly and in open market, white men are regularly 
sold into slavery, without one word of complaint from the sensitive mem- 
ber from Tennessee [Mr. Etheridge] and his luimerouti backers on this 
floor. 

Look for a moment at the difference between the two cases. The Af- 
rican slave trade was abolished by this Government fifty yeyrs ago, and 
since then all the civilized countries of the world have pronounced and 
legislated against it in the most decided form that human enactments 
can assume. Besides this, Great Britain and the United States keep up 
large fleets on the coast of Africa to prevent individuals from engaging 
in it. Xor has any member of Congress ever proposed here by bill, 
resolution, or speech, as I know or believe, to re-establish it: nor has 
any one State or State Legislature recommended it; and yet the bare 
suggestion by one individual that it ought to be reopened, gave such a 
shock to the sensibilities of the gentleman from Tennessee, that his feel- 
ings could only find vent in the most exaggerated and heart-rending 
figures of speech. lie seemed to be thrown into convulsions by the idea, 
as a hydrophobia patient is by the sight of water; and yet he represents 
a body of white men on this floor, and looks with supine indifierenceon 
the sale, in open daylight, of large numbers of 'white men occurring on 
our very borders. Nor is there any law existing to prevent this really- 
great mischief. But while he is thus indifferent to the existence of the 
slave trade in white men — men of the same color with his constituents, 
the idea that negroes should be sold so operated on him and many others 
on this side of the House, that they were thrown into as great convul- 
sions and contortions as a frog's log would be by a powerful galvanic 
battery. 

I have been waiting, sir, for an opportunity to bring up these gentle- 
men on this question ; and I intend, if it is afforded me, to compel them, 
if possible, to vote directly on a proposition condemning the slave trade 
in white men. I wish the whole country to see who they are, if any 
such there be, who, while affecting to be so horrified at the thought of 
the selling of negroes, view with supreme indifterence the enslaving of 
white men. In affirming, as I do, that the white man is eminently fitted 
to enjoy freedom rather than the negro, I shall at least have on my side, 
and in support of my opinion, the whole history and experience of man, 
the manifestations of nature herself, and the decrees of God Almighty. 
I desire especially to obtain a declaration of the opinion of this body 
against the system practiced by Great Britain and Spain. This House 
of Representatives, in view of the numbers, intelligence, and capacity 



(400) 

of those whom it represents, is undoubtedly the first such body that has 
existed on the globe, either in ancient or modern times ; and its judg- 
ment, deliberately pronounced, cannot fail to produce an impression on 
the civilized world. 

But to show how this system of transporting and selling into slavery 
these Coolies is managed by Great Britain and Spain, I will, in the first 
place, ask the attention of the House to the decrees of the Spanish Gov- 
ernment. They were transmitted to the British Government by Lord 
Howden, its Minister at Madrid, and are contained in a volume of the 
State Papers. They bear date, as signed by the Queen, March 22, 1854. 
Their examination shows tliat the Coolies are, in fact, no better than 
slaves. Even the provisions made especially for their benefit show this ; 
and I read a few as s])ecimens : 

By the twentieth article, "The colonists may contract marriage with 
the consent of their masters." 

By tlie thirty-fourth article, " Forbidden to leave the estate without 
written permission of master," &c. 

The thirty-eighth article pro^'ides, "That they shall not be compelled 
to work more tlian twelve hours on the average." 

By the thirty-ninth article, " They shall not be obliged to work more 
than fifteen hours in one day, and sliall always have at least six consecu- 
tive hours of rest by night or by day." 

Look at these provisions, and tell me if the slaves are in any State of 
this Union worked on an average, throughout the year, twelve hours 
per day, or if they are obliged, at any season, to labor for as much as fif- 
teen hours. As to giving them six consecutive hours for rest, why, most 
field negroes in the South would sleep twice that period of time if they 
did not get hungry while so doing. 

Article sixty-one declares for what oflTenses they shall be punished, as 
follows : 

" 1. Insubordination to the master, to the surperiuten dents, or any other 
delegate of the master. 

"2. Refusal to work, or want of punctuality in any particular piece of 
work. 

"3. Injuries which do not oblige the party injured to suspend work. 

"4. Desertion. 

"5. Drunkenness. 

" 6. Infraction of the rules of discipline established by tlie master. 

"7. Offences against good manners not constituting crimes, ifec. 

"8. Any other act done with malice, and from whicli injury or damage 
accrues to a third person, &c. 

"Art. 64. When the punishments pointed out in article fifty-six are not 
sufficient to prevent the colonist from repeating the same, or committing 
other offenses, the master shall apply to the protector, who, if the act consti- 
tutes an offense according to the laws, shall decide that the guilty colonist 
shall be punished by them; and if not, by additional disciplinary punishment." 

By these decrees it is provided that the inhabitants of China and Yu- 
catan may be imported. The Chinese are white people, and the Yuca 
tanese are Indians; and it might be supposed that these two races ought 
to be sufiicient for the Island is Cuba. 



(401) 

I find, however, in the newspapers, another proposition made to the 
Spatiish Government, thoufijh I anj not prepared to saj that it has ac- 
tnally been adopted. If not ah-eady sanctioned, I suppose it will be, as 
it is strictly in accordance with the policy heretofore established : 

"1. Her Catholic Majesty shall concede to the contractor (Senor Meana) 
the usufruct of the Islands of Fernando Po, Annoboui and Corisco, with their 
wild and cleared lands, for the term of twenty years from the date of the 
concession, giving him also an assistance of $20,000 yearly." 

"11. He shall be authorized to transport to the Island of Cuba, to the 
exclusion of all others, under contract for the term of eight years, such inhab- 
itants of the said islands as voluntarily, and without any kind of coercion, 
may agree to come to it, under the following condition: 

"The grantee shall not receive in repayment of all cost, from the masters 
to whom the persons contracted shall be assigned, and to whom, with this 
view, their contracts shall be transferred, a greater sum than $204 for such as 
are between eighteen and fortj^-five years of age, ami $136 for such as are 
between eight and eighteen," 

The Island of Fernando Po, 1 need hardly remind the House, is situ- 
ated in the Gulf of Guinea, in sight of the main land, and in fact within 
some thirty miles of Old Calabar, a principal station for the African 
slave trade. Of course, tlie people taken from this region will be Guinea 
negroes. But it is provided tliat none shall be taken away but those 
who agree to go. Who will they be, sir ? Why, it is well known that 
annually large numbers of slaves are brought from the interior to the coast 
to be sold, and when purchasers are not found they are slaughtered indarge 
gangs, because their masters are afraid to turn them loose ; I mean the 
males. The females are bought usually by the Kroomen along tlie 
shore ; and, as I have been informed by our navy officers stationed on 
that coast, they command sixteen dollars apiece, while the male negroes 
may be worth only six. Of course these negroes, when they find that it 
is a choice between death and transportation, will agree to take the 
latter, and will thus be enrolled. 

The provision limiting the price for the first class to $204, is preg- 
nant with suggestions. It is not intended to cripple or diminish the 
trade, since it is clear that, even at these rates, enormous profits will be 
made by the shippers and sellers. It is, on the contrary, directly 
intended to increase the traflic to the most frightful extent, as the supply 
is inexhaustible. By thus putting them at a low rate, the purchasei's 
will be the more tempted. The planters of Cuba, seeing that their 
island is to be ruined anjdiow, will be forced to conclude that it is their 
true interest to get as many of these creatures as possible, and work 
them even to death in eight years. Every one knows that he who hires 
a horse for a short period is apt to take less care of him and work him 
harder than the owner would do. Then it may be assumed that not 
many will survive this period. But should they even do so, and be then 
in good faith liberated, how many of them will, in fact, ever reach 
Africa again ? Who that knows tlie Guinea negro expects them to 
return by force of this Spanish contract f No. sir, they will remain 

51 



( 402 ) 

there ; and these ne2;voes, by their mixture with the Chinese Coolies, 
the Yiicatenese Indians, and the present black and mon^^rel population 
of Cuba, will fill the island with a body of savages, so that such of the 
planters as have the means of emigrating will be forced to do so, and 
thus this beautiful gem of the Antilles will soon be in a worse condition 
than it was when Columbus crossed the Atlantic. 

The acts of the British Government justify us in assuming that, as 
she sees that the West India Islands are likely to be ours, she has delib- 
erately resolved to ruin them as far as it in her power lies. This is, 
however, all professed to be done in the name of humanit}^ ! How long 
is it, sir, since Great Britain, in one year, permitted more than two 
millions of her Irish subjects to starve to death ? Whj', the newspapers 
state— whether truly or m)t I cannot tell — that more than twenty-one 
thousand of them perished in this way during the past year. These 
things are permitted to occur without any real or sincere effort to pre- 
vent them. In fact, what she has spent on her African fleet would 
liave been more than sufficient, if properly directed, to have saved 
the lives of every one of those white people. Then look to the 
frightfully cruel system that is carried on by her in India. There, 
a ]>opulation more than five times as great as that of the whole 
United States is subjected to the most grinding oppression. The 
land is owned in places by the Government, and the people are 
compelled to work it, and pay one half, and even more in some 
provinces, as rent. To collect this exorbitant amount, torture is 
habitually applied to the miserable laborers. There is no doubt about 
this matter. The British Parliament was forced, by public opinion at 
home, to appoint a commission to go to India and take testimony. 
Their report, officially made, shows that, to force the laborers to perform 
more than human nature is capable of, there are constantly and syste- 
matically applied tortures which surpass in variety and cruelty those of 
the famous Spanish Inquisition, or even such as the imagination of 
antiquity was able to invent for application in the infernal regions. 
The mind absolutely shrinks back from the atrocities of these details. 
A lai-ge percentage of the immense population of the country has 
already perished most miserably by these tortures, and the famines conse- 
quent on such exactions. And yet, sir, though these matters have thus 
been made public in England, and also in tliis country, and during the 
last year, by myself and others, commented on, yet they have been 
completely ignored by that portion of our press and those orators that 
profess to have in their especial charge all matters pertaining to freedom 
and humanity. Is it not a strange spectacle, sir? But so absorbed are 
the Abolitionists in their idolatry of everything English, that if one 
could speak to them in a voice louder than seven thunders, they would 
not hear these things. Yes, sir, if the idea was sharpened to the keenest 
point possible, and then driven by the force of an engine of ten thou- 
sand horse power, it would not be able to make a lodgment in their 
brains. No, sir, the genuine Abolitionists would look you right in the 
face, with the stolid, stupid insensibility of a stone image. Mr. Chair- 
man, suppose a man were to tell you that he was shocked by your cru- 
elty to your slaves, or servants; and at the same time you knew that, 
with ample means in his hands, he allowed his own children to starve 



(408) 

to death from time to time, and that he also had seized upon other per- 
sons, and because they did not perform tasks that exceeded the powers 
of human nature, was torturing them to death by every sort of devilish 
device that malice and crnelty could suggest, would you believe in that 
man's hnmanity ? Then, sir, I do not believe in this kind of British 
humanity. 

The beautiful islands that stud our American Mediterranean are in 
this way likely to be made desolate, and to become the abode of savages. 
Should they fall into our hands in the march of events, they will pre- 
sent serious obstacles in the way of turning tliem to a proper account. 
How long did it take the Pilgrims to kill, or otherwise get clear of the 
Pequods and other Indians in New England ? What obstacles did not 
the savages present to the settlement of the Soiithei'n States '* If Great 
Britain should merely retard the occupation of tliese islands for twenty- 
live or fifty years, this would be a great deal grained to her, as she 
thinks, in the race between the two countries. If all these islands are 
placed in the condition that St. Domingo now is, how are they to be 
made to answer the ])urpose for which Providence seems to have intended 
them ? There is a precedent in English history which is brought to 
mind. In the year 1060, one William, Duke of Normandy, surnamed 
the Conqueror, crossed the British channel with a body of his followers. 
He beat down the English, killed their monarch, and seized upon the 
island. He then divided its territory and inhabitants among his fol- 
lowers. I cannot say, Mr. Chairman, that I ap]))'ove of this precedent, 
because the fair-haired, white-skinned Saxons then enslaved have since 
shown that they are eminently worthy of the freedom that they have by 
their intellect and courage recovered. 

But would the same remark apply to the negro race anywhere ? Sup- 
pose that Lopez, Walker, or some other Norman or South-inan lillibnster, 
should make a descent on St. Domingo, confiscate the island, and divide 
its territory and people (such at least, as did not choose to emigrate 
from it) among his followers, the civilized world would be a gainer, and 
its present population ])robabl_y not losers by the operation. I rather 
think with Carlyle, the English writer, that Cuffee, living lazily on 
squashes, has no right to expect that he is forever to incumber these 
fine islands ; but that somebody or other will, one of these days, set 
him to work, and make him produce sugar, coffee, and the like things, 
which Providence seems to have intended these islands to yield for the 
benefit of mankind. At least, Cuffee's title to obstruct a proper use of 
these West Indies is not better than was that of the original savages 
and wolves to hold, against our present system of civilization, tliese 
banks of the Potomac, on which our magnificent Capitol now stands. 

Great Britain has, too, been sending her .Jamaica free negroes into 
Central America to Africanize it likewise. Such being her policy, 
viz : to prevent, if possible, our acquisition of territory — and if this 
attempt on her part should fail, at least to render the territory of as 
little value as possible — what has our government been doing to coun- 
teract her movements? I am sorry to be obliged to say, little or 
nothing. The present administration, in advance of its predecessors, 
has, it is true, directed its attention to the subject, and made some re- 
monstrances against these movements. In a dispatch of July 2, 1853, 



( 404 ) 

Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, to Mr. Buchanan, our Minister at 
London, says: 

" We do not complain that Great Britain enforces her treaty stipulations in 
regard to the ernaneipados in Cuba; liut if it should prove to be true that 
she is using her influence in furtherance of a design to till that island Avith 
emigrants from Africa, in order that when the Spanish rule over it sliall cease 
it may become an African colony given over to barbarism, she ought to be 
conscious that she is concurring in an act which, in its consequences, must be 
injurious to the United States." 

How does Mr. Buchanan reply ? On the 18th of October, 1854, he 
says: 

"Under such circumstances, we ought neither to count the cost nor regard 
the odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear lo enter into the 
question, whether the present condition of the island would justify such a 
measure? We should, however, be recreant to our duty, be unworthy our 
gallant forefathers, and commit base treason against our posterity, should we 
permit Cuba to be Africanized, and become a second St. Domingo, with all 
its attendant horrors to the white race, and suffer the flames to extend, loour 
own neighboring shores, seriously to endanger, or actually to consume the fair 
fabric of our Union." 

This language, sir, of the President elect has the ring of the true 
metal. It is genuine bullion, and not tinsel merely put on to deceive 
the public. Under him we are entitled to expect that the country will 
take the proper stand to resist the British policy which I have been 
condemning. We need a bolder foreign policy, sir. 

But we shall, perhaps, be told that there is danger of a war with 
England if we do not acquiesce in her views. Sir, we have no treaty 
with Great Britain to prevent her taking possession of Mexico, and 
yet she does not seize it. We expressly refused the convention as to 
Cuba, and though she muttered some threats, hitherto she lias not 
attempted to take it. She does not do so, because it is not, in her 
opinion, her interest under the existing circumstances. Then why 
should Central America be in more danger of seizure from her? Will 
not the same stand on our part that is sufficient to protect Cuba like- 
wise prevent her taking possession of Central America? I do not sup- 
pose for a moment that she would hesitate to go to war with us to 
maintain her honor, or to protect any really essential interest. But if 
vve are involved in a rupture with her, it will be because of some sudden 
and unforeseen castialty which leaves h^r no alternative. As we are 
not likely to give her any just occasion, so she will not deliberately 
go to war with us. She is too good a calculator for that. In the first 
place, look at the commerce Ijetween the two countries. During the 
last fiscal year we purchased from her goods, &c., to the value of one 
hundred and fifty-four millions of dollars, and sold her in return two 
hundred and four millions. There is a trade between the two countries 
of three hundred and fifty-eight millions, which must be sacrificed 
during a war. She also gets from us the cotton that supplies her 



(405) 

manufacturing establishments. If she were compelled to procure it 
through the shipping of neutral nations, its cost would be increased 
materially, and at the same time the marine of these other parties 
would be built up hereafter to rival her own perhaps. In the third 
place, a war of a few 3-ears' duration would make us a great manufac- 
turing people, so that on the return of peace we should be in a con- 
dition to do without her goods, and, in fact, might have become a for- 
midable competitor to her in the markets of the world. 

There is, however, still a consideration of greater weight than all 
these put together. We have hostages on this continent to hold her 
to terms of peace. She could not, at this time, hope to defend Canada 
against a well-directed attack b}' us. If she had no territory on this 
continent, she would be vastly stronger as against us, and much more 
likely to go to war than she now is. It may be said, however, that if 
this be so, wh}-^ should she not make up her mind to lose Canada and 
her other possessions? But she could not afford to lose them in war 
without loss of great predige, and the probable loss of Australia, 
India, and other colonies. She would then be reduced to the condi- 
tion of Carthage after the second Punic war. She might still be 
wealthy, polished, and capable of making a formidable resistance at 
home; but she would no longer be dreaded abroad. The power of 
Great Britain consists mainly in her commerce, her naval supremacy, 
her wealth, her prest'uje, and her diplomacy. The loss of her colonies 
would materially impair all these sources of her great power. Look 
to her recent history, and it will be obvious that her strength is not 
mainly owing to the military force she can bring into the field. For 
the last century she has not been able to fight with her own means 
any of the great Powers on the continent of Europe. In fact, I do not 
remember that during this time she has ever landed her troops on a 
hostile territory, but only on the dominion of her allies. She plumes 
herself on beating Napoleon at Waterloo; but it was after his strength 
had been exhausted in the campaigns of Italy, Egypt,, and Spain, and 
on the Rhine and the Danube. It was after he had lost half a niillion 
of his best men under the snows of Russia, and the remnant of his 
armies had been trampled under foot by the forces of all Europe in 
the campaigns of 1813 and 1814; it was then that his exhausted 
energies yielded to Wellington, assailed as he was at the same time by 
a fresh Prussian army in his flank and rear. 

So well does England know her own strength that she used formerly 
to fight France with the help of Russia, and latterly Russia with the 
with the aid of France. When, therefore, in her continental difii- 
culties, she cannot obtain a powerful ally, she waives the occasion, and 
consults her interest. I use the word interest in its largest sense, for 
she knows that the preservation of her honor is of the highest interest 
to her. She is as sagacious in avoiding a collision with a powerful 
enemy, as she is haughty and domineering towards a weak one. She 
knows, too, how much may be accomplished by constant pressure upon 
us, and by constant complaint of us. She strenuously opposed the an- 
nexation of Texas, though with no more justification or excuse on her 



( 406 ) 

part than we should have had to complain of the union between 
England and Scotland. 

Notwithstanding the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, she in violation of its 
whole spirit, as the records of our State department show, attempted 
in 1852 to force Guatemala to allow a Belgian colony to settle in her 
territory, 

AVhen there was a proposition made for the acquisition of the Sand- 
wich Islands, she, with no claim over them, strenuously resisted it. 

Wlien we were attempting to procure a site for a coal depot in St. 
Domingo, she even made active and successful opposition. 

Even at the time we were negotiating a treaty in relation to the 
guano trade with Ecuador, she succeeded in getting up such opposi- 
tion as defeated the project. Why, when Commodore Perry was look- 
ing at some little uninhabited islands in the Pacific, he was called to 
account to know what his intentions were. In fact, in all matters she 
seems to keep up a sort of surveillance over us. As a general propo- 
sition, I think it may be asserted that Great Britain makes it a point 
to assert dominion over all territory on the globe which is not in pos- 
session of sonaebody capable of defending it. She in an especial 
manner takes it upon herself to oversee us, and prevent our growing 
too fast. But while she has been acting thus, our conduct to her has, 
except when she has directly thrown herself in contact with our 
interests, been forbearing in the extreme. Our government makes no 
objection to her constant acquisitions in various quarters of the world. 
Without any complaint here, she may go and take possession of all 
Asia, if Russia does not prevent her. She may extend her dominions 
from the Cape of Good Hope over all Africa, if France permits. She 
already holds Australia, tlie fifth great section of the world. Nor are 
we disposed to interfere with her immense possessions in the northern 
parts of this continent. But as to that remaining ])arcel of territory 
which lies between us and the Isthmus of Panama, she ought to see 
that the United States has claims to its control. If she persists in her 
present course, then let the collision come, with all its consequences. 
Every one must see that our former subserviency has neither won her 
respect, nor obtained her forbearance. 

In the expression of these opinions, sir, I am actuated by no feeling 
of hostility to Great Britain. My course here, as a member, might be 
referred to, to show this. I have advocated the greatest freedom of 
trade between the two countries, believing that both would be benefitted 
thereby. The Canadian reciprocit}'^ act was much more beneficial to her 
than to us, it in fact giving to her possessions most of the advantages of 
being in our Union, without the burdens it imposes. This measure 
was grossly partial and unjust to other sections in its principles; and 
yet, after opposing it through one Congress, because it was beneficial 
to certain portions of our people, and because it was a step in the 
direction of free trade, I gave it my support when it became a law. I 
might point to the matter of the late ship Resolute, and some other 
things, to prove that I entertain no prejudice against her. 

The courage, manliness, and other high qualities of the English 
people, are eminentl}^ worthy of admiration. While taking exception 



( 407 ) 

to the course of their sjoveriiment in some respects, I must commend 
one of its traits to our own for imitation. It protects its subjects in all 
parts of the world. Our government does often the reverse with regard 
to its citizens. Hence, when in foreign countries, I understand that 
Americans, where it is practicable to do so, represent themselves as 
being Englishmen, and thus secure res])ect and protection. Many 
instances might be referred to, to show this. I read, as a sample, an 
extract from a letter written by an American lady in Nicaragua: 

" Tlie American Minister was called home at tlie worst time, for this war 
is not against General Walker alone, but on all Americans. Poor Mr. Calla- 
glian Avas whipjied to death when he fell into the hands of the enemy, 
altliongli he was no officer; and every American they can catch is destined 
to the same fate. English people are not treated so, for England will not 
pat up witli it; but our Government is the meanest in the world in that way." 

This probabl}' does some injustice to our government. Our Secre- 
tary of State has, perhaps, done all in his power with our limited 
navy. You told me, Mr. Chairman, that when you represented our 
country as Commissioner to China, American interests suffered 
seriously for the want of a few ships. The conduct of Captain Ingra- 
ham in a noted instance is the exception, and it shines like a bright 
light on a dark ground. As to how the British carry it, their late 
attack on Canton shows. There tliey assailed and captured a city of 
more than a million of inhabitants, with far less provocation than we 
had in the matter of Greytown. As to the Greytown business, the 
chief, if not the only objection I see, arises from the feebleness of those 
assailed. It did look a little like shooting rats, instead of letting ter- 
riers attend to them. Probably it w^as unavoidable, however. So 
many greater wrongs, if this was a wrong, occur in British histor}', 
that one is amused by seeing their affected horrors at the sight of our 
barbarity. 

I should not be surprised if slie were to hold on to Canton, and ulti- 
mately take possession of China. She will then civilize it as she for- 
merly did Ireland, and is just now civilizing India. She will manage 
to get some wealth for her officials, and some products for her com- 
merce, out of the four or five hundred millions of people there. As 
the population is crowded now to the extent of producing frecj[uent 
famines, if half of them die under the pressure of her foot, why, those 
left will have more room, and humanity will be promoted thereby, 
and civilization and Christianity propagated. 

I hold, then, Mr Chairman, that while a decided, firm policy on our 
part to maintain what we have aright to claim, will not endanger our 
peaceful relations, yet it is our duty to make the stand in any event. 
Let Great Britain acccord to us what we concede to her — let her recog- 
nize our equality with her, and there will be a permanent, stable 
friendship between the two countries that must prove highly advan- 
tageous to both. The acquisition, by the United States, at some future 
day, of the countries of which I have been speaking, by increasing 
vastly the supply of tropical productions for the use of the world, must 



( 408 ) 

prove highly advantageous to all civilized nations. In a pecuniary . 
and commercial point of view, Great Britain would receive benefits lit- 
tle, if any, short of ours. The two countries possess more than two- 
thirds of the shipping of the world, and this preponderance is likely to 
be increased rather than diminished. The sixty millions who now 
speak the Anglo-Saxon tongue, if united, by reason of their intelli- 
gence, energy, wealth, maritime ascendancy, and territorial possessions, 
may guide the destinies of civilization. The fault will be England's 
if we have a collision. This is more likely to be prevented by firm- 
ness and frankness on our part, than by an opposite policy. 

If I have not spoken, sir, of the interference with our domestic 
affairs by a portion of her subjects and press, it is not because I 
regard that as affording less grounds of complaint than the points 
alread}'^ referred to. This branch of the discussion would involve us 
to some extent in the consideration of those sectional issues with which 
I think the country is already wearied. I have rather sought, there- 
fore, to present these considerations in such a manner as to invite the 
examination of all who have true American minds, and are willing to 
look at them as national questions should be examined. 



( 409 ) 



[After Mr. Buchanan's accession to the Presidency, instead of a 'vigorous Americaa 
policy, with reference to questions about which we had had controversies with Great 
Britain, his course was just the reverse. In fact, he seemed to have been completely 
won over to England by the courtesy of the Ousely Mission. His admiration for the 
British governnvnt became boundless, and he not only declined himself to do or 
say anything that might be disagreeable to it, but he acted as though he thought it 
might be offended with him, if he did not suppress all demonstrations in Congress 
against its wishes. 

After many rather disagreeable conversations with him on that subject, I decided, 
as Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs in the House, that I would entirely 
disregard his wishes. In spite of liis efforts, which were unceasing, with those 
members of the committee that he could control, a majority authorized a report in 
favor of the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. A majority of the House, too, 
sustained the resolution, on a vote of the ayes and nayes, notwithstanding the persis- 
tent opposition of the President's especial friends. On the day following tliis vote I 
ceased to be a member of the House, and final action was not had on the resolution. 

Iq support of the general line of policy which I thought the government ought to 
adopt the following speech was made :] 

SPEECH 

AGAINST THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY, AND IN FAVOR 
OF AMERICAN ASCENDENCY IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 
AND CENTRAL AMERICA, DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES, MAY 5, 1858. 

Mr. Clingman said: 

Mr. Speaker: With the indulgence of the House I will make some 
explanation of the report made from the Committee on Foreign Affairs, 
on the arrest of General Walker by Commodore Paulding. It will be 
remembered, at an early day of this session I offered some resolutions, 
in the following words: 

BesoUed, That the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, designated 
as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, being, under the interpretation placed on it by Great 
Britain, an entire surrender of the rights of this country, and upon the American 
construction, an entangling alliance without mutuality either in its benefits or restric- 
tions, and having hitherto been productive only of misunderstandings and contro- 
versies between the two governments, ought therefore to be abrogated. 

Resolved^ That since the acquisition and settlement of our territory on the Pacific, 
certain portions of Central America stand to us in a relation similar to tliat which 
Louisiana, prior to its acquisition, bore to our territory in the Mississippi valley, and 
tlierefore ought not to be subject to the control of any foreign Power that might 
interfere materially with our interests, 

Besohed, That inasmuch as the government of the United States has heretofore 
taken steps to suppress the African slave trade, and is at present subjecting itself to 

52 



(410) 

a considerable annual expense to keep up a squadron on the coast of Africa to pre- 
vent the same, we feel it to be our duty to protest against the trade in white men, 
commonly called the Coolie trade, not only on principles of humanity with reference 
to the subjects of that traffic, but also because it is eminently injurious in its ultimate 
effects to the countries to which they are transported. 

They indicate the line of policy upon which I expect to speak to- 
day ; but before doing so I desire to offer a few words on the subject 
of this Paulding report. 

It takes the ground that he, Commodore Paulding, had no author- 
ity to arrest General Walker in Nicaragua. It has been said that 
pirates may be followed into any jurisdiction, and there has been an 
attempt to liken this case to that. On that point, I can refer to a very 
high authority. Mr, Webster, in his letter to Mr. Fox, says: 

" Her Majesty's government are pleased, also, to speak of those American citizens 
who took part with persons in Canada engaged in an insurrection against the British 
government, as 'American pirates.' The undersigned does not admit the propriety 
or justice of tliis designation. If citizens of the United States fitted out, or were 
engaged in fitting out, a military expedition from the United States, intended to act 
against the British government in Canada, they were clearly violating the laws of 
their own country, and exposing themselves to the just consequences whicli might 
be inflicted on thorn if taken within the British dominions. But, notwithstanding 
this, they were certainly not pirates, nor does the undersigned think that it can 
advance the purpose of fair and friendly discussion, or hasten the accommodation of 
national difficulties, so to denominate them. Their offence, whatever it was, had 
no analogy to cases of piracy. Supposing all that is alleged against them to be true, 
they were taking a part in what they regarded as a civil war, and they were taking 
a part on the side of the rebels. Surely England herself has not regarded persons 
thus engaged as deserving the appellation which her Majesty's government bestows 
on these citizens of the United States. 

"It is quite notorious that, for the greater part of the last two centuries, subjects 
of the British Crown have been permitted to engage in foreign wars, both national 
and civil, and in the latter in every stage of their progress; and yet it has not been 
ima^^ined that England has at any time allowed her subjects to turn pirates. Indeed, 
in our own times, not only have individual subjects of that Crown gone abroad to 
engage in civil wars, but we have seen whole regiments openly recruited, embodied 
armed, and disciplined in England, with the avowed purpose of aiding a rebellion 
against a nation with which England was at peace." 

I will remind the Plouse, in addition to that strong authority, that 
when General Felix Houston proposed to raise an expedition to help 
the Greeks in their revolution, John Quincy Adams, then President 
of the United States, Henry Clay, then Secretary of State, Daniel 
Webster, Forsyth and Lafayette gave him strong letters of recommen- 
dation. Lafayette liimself was an illustrious example of that kind of 
piracy. In the debate which took place in the House some tinie ago, 
it was urged that Paulding had a right to follow Walker as a criminal 
into the jurisdiction of Nicaragua, and arrest him. This is contrary 



(411) 

to the law of nations; and if gentlemen will take the trouble to look 
into the extradition treaties which have been entered into with Great 
Britain, witli Switzerland, and with other countries, they will find that 
those countries have recognized no such right as this; nor has the 
right, in an}' case, been conceded, but only the right to make a demand 
on the executives. The Nicaraguan Minister could net have given 
any such authority. It is an authority which can be granted only by 
the treaty-making power. Mr. Dallas could not authorize any English 
captain to come into the United States for such a purpose; that could 
onh' be done by the President and the Senate, as tlie treaty-making 
power. 

But it is argued, in the third place, that Paulding went there for the 
benefit of Nicaragua Well, sir, upon that point I have to say that an 
officer in charge of the United States forces can only use those forces 
in the service of the United States. That proposition, I think, is in- 
disputable. What the last House of Representatives thought on that 
subject, I beg leave to show, b}' presenting the vote upon a resolution of 
my own. 

I will say to the House, in explanation of the circumstances under 
which I offered that resolution, that immediately after the Panama 
outbreak and the slaughter of our people occurred, I went to see the 
late Secretar}' of State, Mr. Marcy, and advised at once that a body of 
troops should be sent down to protect the Panama railroad. I called 
Mr. Marcy's attention to the fact that the United States had guaranteed 
the safety of the line by a treaty which was the supreme law of the 
land. He admitted such was the treaty, but said that the Executive 
could not use the United States forces within a foreign jurisdiction 
without the authority of Congress. I reminded him of what had been 
done at Greytown, and he intimated that they had probably exceeded 
the law at Greytown ; " but," said he, '' we will do anything we can do 
from the guns of our ships, but we cannot land troops there." 

I say, Mr. Speaker — because this has been a subject of some discus- 
sion lately, and I am a very frank man in politics — that I did press 
upon the Secretary of State the importance of sending troops there, 
taking possession of that line, and holding that isthmus as a satisfac- 
tion, but agreeing to pay to New Granada a sum of perhaps two or 
three millions to boot, for a cession to us. That was my line of policy. 
I desire to hold that isthmus. I also remember very well, that, in the 
course of that conversation — for I was perhaps a little ultra and press- 
ing in my remarks — in reply to a question of the Secretary of Slate, 
as to what we all thought up here in Congress about his foreign policy, 
I did say to him that, in my judgment, his foreign policy had been 
irritating and weak; that they had quarreled with everybody, and 
maintained nothing. 

But, sir, it is sufficient for my purpose to say that the Secretary of 
State thought that there was no authority, and he referred me to the 
President. I had a convresation with President Pierce on the subject, 
and he took the same view of it : that without authority from Congress, 
the Executive could not use the troops of the United States in any for- 



( 412 ) 

eign jurisdiction. I therefore presented in the House the following 
resolution : 

Be it 7'esolved, <£*c., That foi- the better protection of the persons and property of 
American citizens, under the law of nations, and as secured by existing treaty stipu- 
lations with reference to the thoroughfares or lines of travel between the Atlantic 
and Pacific oceans, the President of the United States be, and is hereby, authorized 
to employ any part of the land or naval forces of the country, and to call for and use 
any number of volunteers tliat may be necessary to provide for the safety of passen- 
gers and others of our citizens in those localities, and to insure the observance of 
such rights as the government and citizens of the United States are entitled to enjoy 
on said transits. 

''Mr. Jones, of Tenuesse. It is a proposition authorizing the President to take 
possessson of Central America. [Laughter.] I do not want it here at this time." 

Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, said that when the resolution came in he 
should introduce a proposition for the annexation of the British Prov- 
inces. After a little discussion the matter w'ent over until the next 
Monday, and the House adjourned. On the following Monday the 
vote upon the suspension of the rules was — yeas 53, nays 74. A large 
majority of Congress were unwilling to allow me to introduce a reso- 
lution of that sort authorizing the President of the United States to 
use the troops to protect the lives of American citizens on that line, 
because in a foreign jurisdiction? Why? Because they feared the 
President might take possession of Central America, or annex it, or 
involve us in war. Of course, if the President is not to be trusted, 
I suppose gentlemen will not trust his subordinates, either officers in 
the army or navy, to do the same thing. But the question is, 
whether Paulding had a right to do what he did in the absence of any 
act of Congress. I think everybody will agree, upon a moment's reflec- 
tion, that this is a proposition which is not debatable; and hence, in 
this report, I maintain that he had no authority, under the laws of 
nations, or uiider the Constitution and laws of the United States for 
that act. 

But, Mr. Speaker, suppose the resolution which 1 offered in the last 
Congress, and which 1 liave just read, had been adopted and carried 
out, what might have been the effect? The President might have 
occupied the Isthmus of Panama, a narrow neck of territory two or 
three hundred miles in extent, whicli would have been of vast advant- 
age to us, it being that narrow isthmus over which the world may find 
the best connection between the Atlantic and Pacific. Of course, we 
siiould have done as we did in the case of California; we should have 
allowed some balance to New Granada, and paid them whatever 
amount they were willing to take. Gentlemen may smile; but I see 
it stated in the papers that the Attorne}' General of New Granada, who 
controls that country, is actually asking that it shall all be annexed 
to the United States for nothing. 

But, sir, another purpose which I had very much at heart, was to 
open this Nicaragua line Walker, you will recollect, was then in 



(413) 

power, and remained in power about a year. Now, if we had opened 
that line, the efifect would have been that men and supplies could have 
reached William Walker, and I have no doubt that he would have 
sustained himself in that country. He was overthrown, it will be 
remembered, by the combined efforts of the Central American 8lates, 
of Commodore Vanderbilt, and of the British influence against him, 
and by all the aid the Secretary of State could give in cutting off sup- 
plies; and ultimately the capture of his ships and men by Davis, one 
of our naval officers. 

I say, therefore, that it is very obvious to my mind that if my reso- 
lution had been adopted and carried out, and communication had 
thus been opened with him, he would have been sustained, and 1 have 
no doubt he would have established a better system than they now 
have there. 

Even now, it would be of vast advantage to this country to have 
that line opened. It has been closed for more than two years, and the 
gentleman from California (Mr. McKibbin) tells me that the State of 
California loses at least a million and a half of dollars a year by reason 
of the stop{)age of that line. They charge thirty-three per cent, higher 
to go by the Panama route than they would by this line. It has been 
stated in newspapers, whether correctly or not I do not know, that the 
Panama Comjjany is paying $40,000 a month, or $480,000 a year to 
keep the Niaragua line closed. Well, if they are getting $1,500,000 
by it, they can afford to pay $480,000, and make a very handsome 
profit out of it, b}^ reason of the monopoly they thus enjoy. 

I may say, in this connection, Mr. Speaker, tliat I see that a procla- 
mation was issued in New York, on the twenty-second April last, by 
Mr. Yrissarri, and a previous dis})atch,of Deceujber tliirtietii, eighteen 
hundred and fifty-seven, in which he announces that if any citizen 
of the United States goes to Nicaragua or attem))ts to pass through it 
to California, as we have a right to do under the original treaty, he 
he will be treated as an enemy, and stopped if he does not go by a 
certain line, to-wit- the Atlantic and Pacific Ship Canal Company. 
I doubt, sir, if there is anything in our treaty regulations to justify 
that I hold that it is the right of every American citizen, we being 
at peace with Nicaragua, to go to that country in any ship he thinks 
proper to take. But if this be true, I submit to gentlemen upon all 
sides whether a monopoly like this is to be tolerated. True, the com- 
pany is a New York one, but do the people of New York themselves 
wish to be at their mercy? Suppose the British goverument wore to 
provide that nobody should go to Great Britain unless he went there 
in the Cunard line of steamers, so as to give them a monopoly and 
enable them to charge enormously liigii rates, would not every New 
Yorker, and much more the people of Boston, Pliiladelphia and"^ other 
cities complain of such a regulation? 

I see that in another publication, lately made, it is said that any 
man who goes to the country without a permit from tlie minister, or 
from his consul in New York, will be treated as an enemy. I hold, 
sir, that we have a right to exercise an influence upon that country to 
secure the right of way to our Pacific possessions; and I trust that the 



(414) 

treaty-making power of the United States will not allow any regula- 
tion to be made by which we are to lose that right. A gentleman 
(Mr. Bingham) on my right asks me if there is any danger losing it. 
Why, that company claims to have the sole right to carry passengers 
there. Suppose they do not carry any, as they have not carried them 
for two years or more. The way is blocked up; and I am told, as I 
have already said, that they are getting $40,000 a month to keep it 
stopped for the benefit of the Panama Company. That is the allega- 
tion. But suppose it is not (rue. I ask the gentleman from Ohio if 
he, as an American citizen, is willing to deprive the people of this 
country of the right to go to California, unless they go in a particular 
line of ships? Why, there are not more than five hundred thousand 
people in that country — mostly Indians and negroes. And are we to 
allow them to block up our way to our Pacific possessions, unless we 
choose to submit to an enormous monopoly of that sort? 

I conclude what I have to say about Commodore Paulding by sim- 
ply declaring that the effects of that act of his have been very unfor- 
tunate to us. It has been calculated to aid British interests and not 
American interests in that quarter, and has been properly appreciated 
in England, and at Havana. All the letters I see from Central 
America say that, instead of getting credit among the people by that 
act, we are in, perhaps, worse reputation there than we were previously, 
because they supposed we were compelled, by Great, Britain to arrest 
Walker. 

This brings me to the consideration of the relations that exist 
between Great Britain and ourselves in regard to Central America, as 
affected by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. 

Mr. Speaker, there has been a struggle going on between the United 
States and Great Britain for some years, in regard to this Central 
American country. It commenced with the accjuisition of California, 
and the gold discoveries there. Before that time Great Britain had 
been exerting her influence without interruption from us; but as 
soon as she saw that the United States, by the passing of her citizens 
to California, would have advantages in, and would probably acquire 
that country, she made a proposition to us through Sir Henry Bulwer, 
which our administration, exhibiting, as I hold, great imbecility, 
adopted. I think we were circumvented in it; and it is that proposi- 
tion which I now desire this House to consider, and which — if gentle- 
men will examine it — I believe every one on this floor will in his con- 
science pronounce to have been a great blunder. 

The ostensible object of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty was to provide 
for opening the route to California ; but unfortunately that part of it 
has not been executed. That would have been advantageous. Its 
great feature, so objectionable, is the first article, which provides that 
neither Great Britain nor the United States shall ever occupy, colon- 
ize, fortify, or assume or exercise, any jurisdiction over Central Amer- 
ica, or any portion of it, either directly or indirectly, by any treaty 
with any Power, or by reason of any protectorate, &c. It is an agree- 
ment between both governments by which neither is ever to take posses- 
sion of that country, to the end of all time. It has been called a Wil- 



(415) 

mot proviso, but it is vastly more objectionable than the old Wilmot 
proviso. 

We of the South have thought that a denial of the right to expand 
was unjust. It was a denial by congressional legislation, but a denial 
which our government, where we were represented, had imposed and 
might remove, and which they did remove in fact. But this Clayton- 
Bulwer treaty is a Wilmot proviso imposed by a foreign government 
against the growth not only of the South, but likewise of the North, 
and of the whole United States; declaring that in all time we shall 
not touch that country and occupy it. Great Britain herself is a little 
island, less in extent than several States in this Union ; yet she has by 
conquest and fillibustering generally, acquired three times as much ter- 
ritory as the United States have. Great Britain, which like that fabled 
giant of old, has its hundred arms out in all directions, seizing terri- 
tory everywhere, because she sees that the United States might have 
the advantage in Central America, says to us, "hands off!" and our 
government assents to it. Is it not, when stated, a monstrous propo- 
sition, that the limbs of this young, growing, and free Republic should 
be bound by any such treaty through all time ? Why, Mr. Speaker, 
suppose we should say to Great Britain, we will agree that you and we 
wnll never take any portion of Asia ; Great Britain would laugh at us; 
she would tell us that we had no possessions or interest there, and had 
no right to expect her to make any such agreement. Suppose we 
should say to her, "neither of us will touch any islands in the Red 
Sea, and especially the island of Perim, which you are now fortifying." 
Great Britain would say, "though we have no possessions within a thous- 
and miles of that island, yet it lies directly between us and our posses- 
sions in the East, and therefore there is no njutuality in tlie proposition, 
and we will not make the treaty." 

Being encouraged, however, by her success in this Clayton-Bulwer 
matter, she proposed a similar agreement in relation to Cuba ; but the 
American people had been aroused, and understood the effect and folly 
of such a policy, and Mr. Everett and Mr. Fillmore declined the prop- 
osition. If it had been adopted, the next movement would have been 
in reference to Mexico, and our hands whould have been completely 
tied by a great Power which is constantly acquiring territory in all 
parts of the world. Remember, sir, that this is the effect of our own 
American construction of this treaty. By our own interpretation of 
it our hands will be tied for all time. But we have not even the poor 
consolation that she is also bound. After the treaty was made, Great 
Britain said, " by its terms we are allowed to hold all we now possess, 
but we will not take any more ; and, as you have got nothing there, you 
will take nothing." I need not argue against the absurdity of such a 
proposition. Suppose A and B are contending for a house, and A has 
possession of four of the five rooms in it; but there being one vacant 
room remaining, he proposes to B that neither of them shall occupy 
any part of that house, or exercise any control over it. It is agreed 
to; but after the contract has been executed, A says: "lam not to 
give up the four rooms I now hold, but I am not to take that fifth 
room, and you are to let it alone likewise, and to sta}' out of doors." 



(416) 

What would be said of such an arrangement? Now, to show that 
such is the case in the present instance, if gentlemen will look at this 
map, printed by order of the Senate two years ago, (here Mr. C. held 
up the map before tlie House,) they will see that this red line shows 
the British claim. They will find that it covers four-fifths of the 
eastern coast of Central America. Why, sir, that claim has been 
refuted by argument a hundred times. Mr. Buchanan himself argued 
it ably. If gentlemen will look at the speech of Senator Seward, made 
two years ago, they will find an able argument to show that Great 
Britain had no right whatever to hold one foot of that territor}'. Mr. 
Seward said that, sooner than submit to her pretension, we ought to 
have a war with her. But he makes an argument, founded on the 
evils of war, and recommends continued negotiation. 

Mr. Wright, of Georgia. Does the gentleman from North Carolina 
concur in the views of Senator Seward? 

Mr. Clingman. I will say to the gentleman that "sufficient unto 
the day is tiie evil thereof." Whether we shall go to war to resist this 
British assumption is a matter for another occasion ; but I was showing 
how perfectly convinced Governor Seward was as to the injustice of 
her claim, to resist which he was willing to go to war. He recom- 
mends that we should negotiate further, a most lame and impotent 
conclusion; for we have been negotiating with her for the last eight 
years, and we have not yet succeeded in getting a settlement from her. 
If gentlemen would like to know with what rapidity negotiations with 
her progress, let them look back to her negotiations with Spain, and 
they will find that, for two hundred years, Spain has been trying to 
get her out of that country, and was not able to do it with all the 
treaties that could be made. 

The truth is, that the British government has been strengthening 
itself in these ])ossessions, and has held them for eight years, and she 
cannot, honorably, back out from the construction she has stood on so 
long. It was the proposition, however, of an administration which 
has gone out of power, and one which the present feeling of England 
and tlie present administration M'ould, perhaps, not originall}' have 
indorsed. I think, therefore, with President Buchanan, that the true 
mode of meeting this issue is to abrogate the treaty, and to leave nego- 
tiation to arise upon it hereafter. 

But I am met with this idea by gentlemen. The resolution reported 
by the committee is a declaration against both the British and Ameri- 
can construction of the treaty, and recommends that the President 
take steps for its abrogation. But some gentlemen say that the Presi- 
dent and Senate are the treaty-making power; and it is indelicate for 
this House to ever express an opinion on such a subject. There are 
some questions of such vast moment that the representatives of the 
people have the right to look into them. Suppose there was a propo- 
sition to annex all Mexico or Brazil to the United States; will it be 
contended that the representatives of the American people have not 
the right to express their opinion upon it, when every town meeting 
or popular gathering in the country has the right to do so? Remem- 
ber that we are, in fact, the war-making power, and that treaties often 



( 417 ) 

lead to war. We have to vote the money to carry them out, frequently, 
and therefore we must have the right to look into them. In England, 
whence we get our notions of parliamentary law, and of our rights to 
a great extent, though the King has the power to declare war and to 
make treaties without consulting either branch of Parliament, yet, ih 
the House of Commons they have always held that tliey have the 
right to discuss those questions, to ask for ex{)Ianati(»iis, or to refuse 
supplies; and many ministers have been turned out because not sus- 
tained by the House of Commons, on mere questions of foreign policy. 
And will it be contended that what the House of Commons may do in 
a monarchy, the Representatives of the American people cannot do? 

We have a Committee on Foreign Afftiirs, and to that committee 
has been referred this identical message of the President of the United 
States, in which he strongly condemns this treaty, and says it ought to 
be abrogated. The rules of this House require the committees to report 
upon everything which is referred to them. That committee was obliged 
to report; and the most limited report we could make was a resolution 
expressive simply of our opinion. We have not gone so far as to recom- 
mend action. I think, therefore, that every gentleman will see in a 
moment that this is the proper mode of proceeding. We do not 
trammel the President at all, but propose to back him. In my judg- 
ment, the President will find, if this old st^umbling block is removed, 
that a satisfactory arrangement may be made outside of it. Be that 
as it may, I am willing to leave the whole matter with him. But 
there are some questions of expediencv of vast moment involved, and 
I will bring some of them to the consideration of the House. 

By the abrogation of this treaty we shall open that country ultim- 
ately to the occupation of citizens of the United States. A great 
advantage will result from our occupation, as well to that country as 
to us. In all ages of the world, \yhere the higher races have had con- 
trol of the greater portion of the earth, it has been most prosperous. 
There are now, Mr. Speaker, four Powers which are extending their 
dominion over inferior races. In the northeast there is the great Rus- 
sian Empire, which has sprung up in modern times, but it now holds 
one half of Europe, all the north of Asia, and has an area of eight 
million square miles, and a population of sixty-five millions, and is 
extending its dominion over the semi-barbarous nations of Asia, 
Whatever may be thought of the Russian government as compared 
with our own, I think that all men will agree that the system it will 
establish will be more stable and more conducive to the material 
prosperity of tiiose countries than their present system. 

The second power is that which exists in southwestern Europe on a 
comparatively small area. The French Empire in Europe, including 
the island of Corsica, consists of only two hundred and five thousand 
square miles — less than the area of the State of Texas Buttliere is in 
that territory a population of nearly forty million people — -active, ener- 
getic, highly civilized, intelligent and brave, constituting, in m}' opin- 
ion, the most formidable military Power that the sun has ever shone 
upon. If the ascendancy of France, is not as striking as was that of 
ximperial Rome, it is because her neighbors and rivals are vastlv supe- 
53 



(418) 

rior to the semi-barbarous nations over which the Roman eagles direc- 
ted their victorious flight. France is now occupying northern Africa, 
and I have no doubt that civilization will be benefited by it. 

The third power is that which rests on a little island in the Atlan- 
tic ocean — an island less than several States of this Union. But its 
dominions have been extended to every zone, till they girdle the entire 
globe. Great Britain controls a larger amount of the earth's area than 
has been ever heretofore subjected to one government. She has under 
her dominion more than two hundred million people — nearly one- 
fourth of the whole human race. She has subjected to her every 
variety of men, from the Caucasian down to the negro. 

The fourth Power is that which exists on this western continent. 
It has sprung up so suddenly, and its progress has been so rapid, com- 
pared with the old empires, that it reminds me of the vision of Daniel, 
of the he-goat that came from the West so rapidly that he touched not 
the ground. It is only a little more than fifty years since Talle^^and 
said that the United States was a young giant without bones or nerves. 
Since that day, however, the bone has been hardening, the muscles 
swelling, and the sinews toughening; and the United States now 
stands among the great powers of the earth. We have a territory of 
about three million square miles — as much as imperial Rome had in 
her palmiest days ; and though only one third as much as the territory 
of England or even of Russia, yet when you consider the compactness 
of this country and its qualities, it is vastly superior to either. At 
least two-thirds of the territory of the United States is capable of set- 
tlement. If it was all settled up as densely as Massachusetts and as 
Rhode Island are, it would liave a population of above two hundred 
million — more tlian all Europe now has. We have a front on both 
the great oceans. We have the Gulf of Mexico — our western Mediter- 
anean— on our southern border. Napoleon I. attempted to make the 
European Mediteranean a French lake, and failed in it. If the United 
States are true to themselves they will make the Gulf of Mexico a 
great American lake, supplied by that grand arter}' which drains the 
magnificent Mississippi basin. When j^ou remember, therefore, the 
character of our territory, its compactness, its fertility, its favorable 
climate, and its productions, with its active, intelligent and moral pop- 
ulation, it must be admitted by every one that there is no power on 
earth which has greater advantages than we have. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, we, too, have subjected to our control some of 
the inferior races. Let us, for a moment, draw a comparison between 
the United States and these other Powers. I will take Great Britain, 
not only because she is most like us, but because she makes the 
greatest pretensions to enlarged philanthropy, civilization, and general 
humanity, and because she holds a great variety of races under her 
dominion; but especially because the real cjuestion is, "Shall Great 
Britain or the United States control this Central American country?" 
Let us make the comparison, then. Great Britain has subjected to 
her in India one hundred and seventy millions people. The govern- 
ment, in large sections, owns the land, and obliges the occupants to 
cultivate it as tenants. Lord Brougham, in one of his speeches in the 



(419) 

British Parliament, said that eighteen-twentieths of the gross products 
of the soil were drawn away from its cultivators in certain localities. 
No man believes that the inhabitants of any country can live on the 
one-tenth of all the products, or even one-fourth, perhaps not one-half, if 
you take a large district into view. And therefore, according to Bishop 
Heber and other British writers, millions of people die in India 
annually from oppression and famine. Some men have said, whether 
truly or not I cannot tell, that the population of that country has 
diminished by thirty millions since Great Britain got control of it. 
But this much is certain: a few years ago the British government sent 
a commission to India to examine into its condition; and it reported 
that to collect taxes torture was applied to the tenants, and that hun- 
dreds of thousands of men and women die annually under these 
tortures, because they do not pay up their small rents. 

Now, I will do Englishmen the justice to say, that in my judgment 
they cannot approve of any such thing. I am satisfied that the gov- 
ernment itself does not sanction it. That country is governed by the 
East India Company — a great fillibustering company, chartered to 
acquire territory for the British government, and retained for that 
purpose. Corporations are habitually soulless. 

Now look, for a moment, at the manner in which we have treated 
the aborigines of this country. Since the formation of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, I do not believe that we have ever deprived 
any Indian tribe of property. Wherever we have acquired their ter- 
ritory we have given them an equivalent. There is not an Indian 
tribe in the United States that has not more land than it can culti- 
vate. And so far from compelling them to labor and pay taxes, we 
actually expend large sums for keeping them alive. 

Again, sir, the United States and Great Britain have both been large 
importers of negro slaves to America. Into the United States there 
have been brought nearly four hundred thousand negro slaves, and 
they have increased to four million — ten times the original number. 
Into the British colonies there have been one million seven hundred 
thousand imported ; and the proportionate increase would have made 
them at the present time seventeen million. But, in point of fact, 
there are only six hundred thousand. Into Jamaica alone, the British 
and Spaniards have carried eight hundred and ninety thousand 
negroes; and at the emancipation, in 1835, there were only three 
hundred and eleven thousand left — one-third of the original number. 
I need not enlarge on the fact of the vast increase of slave in this 
country, of their condition being above that which their race has ever 
occupied anywhere, and of their immense productions. Compare 
that with the degraded position of the British islands. Great Britain, 
however, emancipated her slaves, and the consequence has been that 
her colonies are lapsing into barbarism and savagery. To relieve her 
islands from their unfortunate and desolate condition, Great Britain 
has adopted another expedient — the importation of large bodies of 
white men as slaves, under the name of the Coolie trade. 

Gentlemen may perhaps remember that during the last session I 
had occasion to make a speech, in which I discussed this subject. I 



(420) 

suppose that in the course of that speech I had commented on some of 
the transactions of the Secretary of State in a manner that may not 
have been entirely acceptable; at any rate, in two or three days after, 
there appeared in a newspaper in this city — a paper which represents 
the foreign interests always — what purported to be an extract from a 
report in progress in the State Department, giving an account of the 
condition of Coolies in Peru, and stating that they had a perfect paradise 
there. And this thing was published as a reply to my speech. I should 
not have objected to its being put in juxtaposition with it, provided they 
liad thought proper to publish my speech, so that their readers could 
decide for themselves. 

Now, if gentlemen will look into the seventh volume of the Com- 
mercial Statistics, they will see all the information that Mr. Marcy and 
his assistants were able to collect on this important subject; and it 
does not make one page. It would be well for gentlemen to read it, 
to see how little truth there may be in an official report. It deserves 
to stand side by side with that passage in the old geographies, which 
represented Indians as venturing over the Falls of Niagara, in their 
canoes in safety. The two statements are equally reliable. I was 
anxious to make a I'eply to it at the time : but, under the rules of the 
House, I had no opportunity afforded me. 

I now ask the attention of the House for a few moments, while I 
expose one of the most oppres.sive, cruel, and monstrous systems that 
the world has ever seen carried on by any civilized nation. I shall 
first read a few extracts from the dail}'^ papers of the last few weeks, 
among the items of telegraphic and other news. I may repeat that 
this report represents the Coolies in Peru as having a fine time of it, 
and as being thriving, prosperous and happy. Whereas, in fact, it is 
established that of those Coolies who are imported in Peruvian ships, 
thirty-eight per cent., a little over one-third, die on the passage. Nor 
do those carried in American and British ships fare much better, as 
these extracts show: 

"On the 19th the American ship, Kitty Simpson, from Swatas and St. Halena, 
with three hundred and thirty seven Asiatics. She had ninety-three deatlis on the 
passage. And on the 20th, the British ship Admiral, witli two hundred and eighty- 
three Asiatics. She had ninety deaths on the passage. 

" It is worthy of remark that the numlier of deaths has always been proportionate 
to the length of the passage, and I cannot omit drawing particular attention to the 
fact that all these Asiatics brought here are males, not a single female having arrived 
among the twenty-four thousand and upwards that have come to this island. Is not 
this the very refinement of cruelty ? 

"Besides, this trade lias not even the sorry excuse of the African slave trade. The 
Africans are savages, wliora, it may be said it is charity to civilize and Christianize; 
the Asiatics are far from being savages; many of them are persons of refined habits 
and considerable education." — New Toi'Tc Herald. 

"Cuba — Latest News. — ^By the steamer Black Warrior intelligence has been 
received from Havana to the 15th instant. It is reported that two cargoes of 
negroes had been landed in Cu])a since the last advices, and duly disposed of. Two 



li 



1421) 

American ships had also arrived from China with cargoes of Co(>lies. The ship 
Challenge, Captain Kinney, one hundred and tliirty-seven days from Swatus, landed 
at Havana six hundred and twenty Asiatics. During the passage two Iiundred and 
eighty-six had died." **:}=* 

"From the 10th of April, 185.'), to the 15tli instant, seventeen thousand six hun- 
and forty-four Asiatics liave been received in Cuba for eight years' servitude, of 
which more than twenty per cent, have alreaily disappeared. On the vessels engaged 
in this traffic, three thousand one hundred and seventeen have died during the voy- 
ages by suicide or disease, being more than one- sixth of the wliole number taken on 
board. This does not include casualties mutinies, &c., which have caused the 
destruction of whole cargoes. Of some three or four tliousand received previous to 
the 10th of April, 1855, nearly all have perished. It is not probable that a tenth 
will remain at the close of tlieir eiglit years. It is said that an arrival of sepoys is 
expected, to add to the heterogeneous mixture of Cuban stock, and to carry out the 
extended views of British philanthropy, or policy, as it maybe, — Union^ of February 
last. 

"Boston, January 39, 1858. — A letter received from Captain Ryan, of the ship 
Lion, from Hong Kong for Callao, dated Angier, November 23, states that the ship 
Kate Hooper, of Baltimore, Captain Jackson, from Macao, October 15, for Havana, 
with Coolies, was at Angier, November 33, waiting for men from Batavia. The 
Coolies mutinied and got possession of tlie between decks, and set the ship on fire 
three times, and before they could be subdued the officers had to sliootfifty of them." 

"Chinese Coolies. — The Chinese emigrants are arriving at Havana in great num- 
bers. No less than three thousahd were landed from four ships in one week. They 
all readily brought twenty-two ounces a head. The most of them arrived in poor 
condition, which is probably owing to the Coolies being kept in dirty junks in 
Swatas, waiting for a vessel to bring them. At last accounts, six large American 
vessels were waiting for cargoes in Swatas alone. Orders have been sent from 
Havanna to procure twenty thousand Coolies, if jiossible." — March 31. 

Some details, as given in the following statement from an English 
paper, may be interesting : 

"The Trade in Chinese Coolies. — The frightful mortality of Chinese on board 
the British ship Duke of Portland has been the subject of investigation for several 
days, before the Local Marine Board, Cornhill, London ; Mr. Duncan Dunliar, 
chairman. 

"Captain Seymour, the master of the Duke of Portland, deposed that the ship left 
Hong Kong with three hundred and thirty-two Chinese Coolies." 

He says, in his statement, one-third had been kidnapped. 

"About two' o'clock on the 3d I left the shore with my papers all in order, and pro^ 
ceeded on board the Julindur to get a box of musket caps, which I was rather short 
of. I saw the mate mastheading the topsails, and flattered myself that all was right. 
Vain hope ! I had not been on board five minutes when I saw the topsail halliards 
had been let go, and the Coolies crowding on the poop. I got on board in double 



(422) 

quick time, and was followed by the Captain and boats' crews from the three other 
ships with whom I was acquainted, and the scene of riot and confusion that awaited 
my arrival I shall not soon forget. The Coolies had taken the opportunity of the 
mate's attention being occupied in making sail, and abstracted the iron l)elaying 
pins, and armed themselves with what else they could on deck, principally firewood, 
and gained possession of the poop, and were yelling and shouting in a fearful man- 
ner, throwing everything moveable overboard, and let go the topsail halliards." 

This mutiny was quelled by force, and they were guarded and con- 
fined : 

"The third day I had the first suicide, and from that date until I passed the Straits 
of Sunda, I had an average of about three overboard daily. They now also com- 
menced threatening to burn the ship, and my interpreter becoming alarmed I could 
not find the ringleaders. On the morning of the 15th, I discovered a plan they had 
laid to take the ship. One more of the invalids was to be thrown overboard, and 
during the absence of the boat to pick them up, the Coolies were to make a rush, 
obtain possession of the poop, and murder all hands, reserving the boats crew to 
take the ship on shore ; and the same afternoon they carried their plan out ; but, as 
I was quite prepared for them, after the failure of their attempt they became much 
quieter; but I had on an average from twelve to eighteen in irons for riotous behav- 
ior and attempted suicide. 

"But I could fill a volume on this subject and the horrors by which I was surroun- 
ded. We lost one hundred and twenty-eight Chinese before arriving at the Havana, 
chiefly from congestive fever; it is like the Hong Kong fever. We lost one of the 
crew. I think the Coolies brought the seeds of the disease on board with them. 
When they would not eat I have tried to force food down their throats. We were 
one hundred and fifty days on our passage from China to the Havana. 

"At the close of the examination of the witnesses, the chairman announced the 
decision of the board : 'That no blame attaches to the owner and master, or any 
one connected with the ship. Tnat Captain Seymour's conduct to the emigrants 
appears to have been kind and attentive, and that every possible precaution was 
used by him to decrease the mortality,'" 

Sir, if these results follow where tlie Coolies are treated kindly and 
judiciously on board ship, what are you to expect when they are ill- 
treated? Let us, however, see how they are treated when landed in 
Peru. From a publication on the subject of agriculture, guano, &c., 
by H. N. Fryatt, of New Jersey, I read an extract: 

"Now do you wish to know how all these ships are loaded, and a thousand tons 
per day dug and sent from the islands ? Well, there are aljout one hundred convicts 
from Peru, and a))out three hundred Chinamen from the Celestial Empire. The for- 
mer are in the right place ; tlie latter were passengers that engaged passage in an 
English ship for California, and engaged before they left their own country, to labor 
after their arrival for a limited time to pay their passage, (eighty dollars.) Instead 
of being landed at California, the ship brought them direct to this place, and the 
captain sold them for three and six years, according to the men to work out their 
passage ; and here they are slaves for life. They are allowed four dollars per month 



(423) 

for their food, and one-eiglith of a dollar per day for their labor, with a pile of guano 
before them which will last the next ten years; and long before it is exhausted the 
majority of them will be dead. Each man is compelled to bring to the shoot five 
tons of guano per day. A failure thereof is rewarded with the lash from a strong 
negro; and such is their horror of the lash, and the hopelessness of their condition, 
that every week there are more or less suicides. In the month of November, I have 
heard, fifty of the boldest of them joined hands and jumped from the precipice into 
the sea. In December, there were tweuty-three suicides. This is from one in author- 
ity. In January, quite a number, but I have not learned how many." 

Now, there are hundreds of these facts constantly published, or 
made known, and they do not excite any attention in this country; 
when, if it was known that ten negroes had committed suicide in one 
of our slave States, it would be published, perhaps, in every newspaper 
in the United States; and we should have many speeches on this floor, 
and elsewhere, against the horrors of slavery, &c. But these are only 
white men, who die under that system by thousands; and no Aboli- 
tionists, or other special friend of humanity, realizes it, or takes the 
slightest notice of it. 

Mr. Foster. I would ask tlie honorable gentleman whether he 
intends bringing in a bill to suppress this Coolie trade? 

Mr. Clingman. I will come to that point in a moment. In this 
matter I hope that I shall have the co-operation of the gentleman 
from Maine. 

I also read a })ortion of a letter from the author of this work: 

"The officers placed on these islands to superintend the delivery of the guano, in 
order to check this business of self-destruction, adopted the plan of rescuing the 
dead bodies from the sea and burning them on the guano heaps, in order to convince 
the Chinese of the impossibility of their return to their native country, through the 
gates of death; that the bodies should remain on tlie island. I was informed that 
this burning of bodies was of frequent occurrence. 

"I have recently conversed with intelligent captains engaged in the Cuba trade, 
wlio tell me how the Coolie trade is done. English commercial houses have runners 
at Amoy, Hong Kong, &c., who are employed in enticing the Chinamen, by offers of 
wages, &c., to emigrate to the land of gold. They pick up the population w^ho live 
outside the walled towns, the sliort haired, and a sprinkling of a better class, who 
are distinguished by the long braided hair hanging behind, and somewhat superior 
intelligence. All manner of inducements are held out, of course. These Coolies 
are furnished with rice and water for food during the passage ; are treated with mucli 
severity, and frequent suicides occur during the passage. Guards are placed over 
them to prevent their jumping overboard, &c. ; and yet, notwithstanding these pre- 
cautions, ajjout one in three either die or destroy themselves on the passage. 

"The passage is five doubloons, landed in Havana, (eighty five dollars). They are 
sold at Havana according to quality ; and the most valuable bring as liigh as three 
hundred to three hundred and fifty doU.irs apiece. 

"The trade is done chiefly by English and American vessels; but my informants 
say that they never knew an American captain to bring a cargo of Coolies twice. 
The English are not so scrupulous. 



(424) 

"The Coolies are put to work alongside of the Africans, and subjected to worse 
treatment, as the Cooly feels his degredation and becomes sullen and melancholy. 
His only relief is in the old mode, suicide, which he avails himself of at the first 
opportunity. The long-haired Chinaman cuts his tail olf as a mark of liis degradation ; 
and as soon as tlie driver sees his tail go he knows tliat the owner intends to depart 
to that bourn, &c., pretty quickly; and not alone, either, as the long tail exercises 
much influence over the others. 

Tlie trade being so lucrative, it is on the increase. The high price of sugar will 
likely add a stimulus to this new species of slave trade, which I, for one, feel much 
indebted to you for holding up to the execration of mankind." 

I have, in addition to that, a letter from a respectable merchant in 
the city of New York, a gentleman of high standing. I do not give 
his name, but the following is a part of his letter: 

" Our eastern ship owners have great horror of the African slave trade, but they 
have no comjDunctions of conscience in abducting Coolies from China and transport- 
ing them to South America. To save appearances, they land them at Arica, in Peru, 
whence tliey are transferred to the Chincha Islands, where they are worked digging 
guano under a broiling &un until they are driven to desperation I had a ship, the 
St. Patrick, load at those island. My captain. Whitman, said that whenever the 
poor creatures could get to the cliffs, they would jump into the sea. Some twenty 
jumped off whilst he was there. You are not, perhaps, aware that there is no water 
on the islands. All the water used is taken there by the ships; and, of course, being 
80 scarce, the poor creatures have but a limited quantity given them. And the dust 
arising from the guano, with the severe labor they undergo, drives them to despera- 
tion. Water must be wanted in large quantities. Your negroes at the South are in 
Paradise compared with tlie Coolies at tne Chincha Islands." 

Mr. Speaker, I need not enlarge on the cruelty of this system. And' 
It does not stop here. France imported Coolies into some of her 
islands. In the island of Bourbon alone, there are thirty-five thousand. 
But England seems, in some way, to have interposed obstacles to the 
obtaining of Coolies by the French, wishing to have a monopoly of 
the business, perhaps, as she formerly had of the African slave trade- 
To get rid of that difficulty, the French Emperor directed his ships 
to go to Africa and get negroes under the name of apprentices. The 
English protested against that, and said it was practically re-opening 
the slave trade. The Tivies thundered about it. It was admitted, 
nevertheless, that the Abolitionists had ruined their West India islands, 
and that they ought to acknowledge their fault in sackcloth and ashes; 
but it proposed only to restore these islands by the importation of 
Coolie labor. To show how the controversy is carried on, I present a 
few passages from the French papers. I think it will be seen that 
they understand the question thoroughly; and, in fact, have the advan- 
tage in the argument: 
t 
"But Africa continues to be the source whence the colonies first drew their labor- 
ing population. It is convenient to our American possessions. Its inhabitants are 



( 425 ) 

gentle, robust, sociable, and iuclined to agricultural pursuits. Then, in addition to 
this, they are oppressed and subject to the horrors of perpetual anarchy in their 
own country. 

"Are not these reasons sufficient to induce us to look to Africa for laborers for 
our colonies ? 

" But it is a great scandal to the superannuated society which was accustomed for 
twenty-five years to behold the world bow before its decrees in matters of philan- 
thropy. What! lay hands on At'ricu, the holy ark which has been guarded with 
such an extreme jealousy, and defended still more by the prestige which it has ac- 
quired ? Tet the Times thinks the present opportunity fortunate for seizing it 
again ; and, thanks to its proceedings, Parliament already resounds with the declar- 
ation of grievances, the most grievous of which is that they cannot have laborers 
from Africa except they purchase them again. It is a natural result of the social 
state of that country. Slavery is the general condition of its working population. 

"But, say the English, when you buy slaves from the African chiefs you encour- 
age those chiefs to procure others by means of incursions, and thus perpetuate in- 
testine wars in that unhappy country, Unfortunately, the barbarism which reigns 
in that continent is exercised independently of all outside pressure. When an Af- 
rican chief does not sell his slaves, he kills them. 

"To deprive Africa of contact with civilization, under the pretext of preserving 
peace among her tribes, is to act like a quack, who, to cure an eruption, kills his 
patient by the internal concentration of the disease. The African chieftains have 
no motive for making war; tliey do so out of a pure instinct of destructiveness, and 
by this alone they prove themselves savages The poor negro captives destined for 
human sacrifice on the occasion of souie public festival, or on the tomb of a war- 
rior, would hardly call it philanthropy to leave them to their fate under pretext of 
a humane objection to their purchase for emigration. 

"Bible societies have undertaken to submit Africa to a regime of preaching, dis- 
tribution of edifying tracts and saintly communion." 

" In any case, we cannot see why the ultra Abolitionists should impose their par- 
ticular views upon us. Is not Africa an independent country? Is it confided to the 
tutelage of Bible societies? And France — cannot she act according to the dictates 
of her own conscience ? There exists in this respect no international engagement 
that can limit her action. The conventions relative to the right of search have 
been suppressed. Engagements entered into since then have been abandoned. 

"The landed proprietor is then rid of every incumbrance. Following the Times, 
the philantropists have made some stupid blunders, which should force them into 
private life, or at least teach them to speak with becoming modesty in future. In 
this situation of things, when it has been provedi^that the system has utterly failed, 
is it astonishing that we should try another ? This would at least have two good 
results. It would give new activity to colonial productions, and withdraw thous- 
ands of negroes from a miserable condition." 

I iiiust say that I ai^ree with the French, that all the points of differ- 
ence are in their favor. The nef:;ro is not only better fitted by nature 
for slavery than the Chinese or Se])oys, but in fact is benefitted by it, 
while they are driven to suicide. The negroes, too, are slaves at home, 
54 



(426) 

or captives to be put to death if they cannot be sold, while the China- 
men and East Indians are in a comparative state of freedom. 

Here is a letter on the subject from Mr. Mason, our Minister at Paris, 
dated 19th February last, which was sent to the Senate the other day by 
General Cass. It is of an important character : 

"In an interview which I had the honor to have with Count Walewski, Minister 
of Foreign Affairs, in the last week of January, I asked him if there were any objec- 
tions to my being informed of the precise character of the measures adopted by his 
Majesty the Emperor's Government, in regard to the importation into the French 
colonies of negroes from Africa. He replied that there was not; and proceeded to 
state very frankly that the French colonies, particularly in the West Indies, were 
languishing for want of labor; that negro labor alone was adapted to tropical pro- 
ductions. I asked if there was any truth in some statements which I had seen in 
the English newspapers, that French vessels freighted with African emigrants would 
be regarded by British cruisers as engaged in the African slave trade. His Excel- 
lency said no ; that there had been some communication between the two Govern- 
ments, and the British Government would not object to the French scheme, while 
the wants of the British colonies were being supjjlied by the Cooly trade. The Min- 
ister urged that the plan adopted secured African labor, which was indispensable to 
their colonies. Tlius the emigrants were free, and were rescued generally from 
impending immolation ; that, relieved from the ignorance and heathenism of the 
most degrading character, they would be humanized and Christianized by being 
placed in contact with the Frencli colonists." 

Thus, Mr. Speaker, it is settled between the two countries that this 
system is to go on, France taking negroes and Great Britain the Asi- 
atics. What is the field they have to take them from, and what is the 
extent to which the operation can be carried ? In China there are four 
hundred million people. Great Britain is now conquering parts of the 
country, and will have free access to the people of the Chinese Empire. 
She also holds in subjection one hundred and seventy million East 
Indians, whom she is killing for n)utiny, &c. There are at least forty 
million negroes on the western coast of Africa within the reach of tlie 
slave traders. You will see, therefore, that one half of the human race 
is open to be preyed upon in this way. 

Now what is the inducement to carry on the trade? It appears that 
they will bring from two to four hundred dollars apiece, and the cost of 
transporting them from China is only eighty or eighty-five dollars, and 
from Africa about half that ; so you will see that there is inducement 
enough. Here are enormous profits to be made. How many will they 
transport when this system is in full operation ? We know that there 
have been half a million of immigrants brought in one year to the United 
States, by American ships mainly. I take it, then, that the navies of 
France and England, with the help of American shipping, will enable 
them to bring over, perhaps, a million a year — certainly half that 
amount. You will then, perhaps, see a vast system of emigration by 
which all these islands and Central America may be filled up, if not 
interrupted in some way, with this people. And, as they only bring 
males, I need not say to gentlemen tliat the system is more cruel than 



(427) 

the former slave trade. Then males and females were brought here, 
and there was sometliing of a social system recognized in that trade. 
Then these people are to be hired out ; and nobody will deny that they 
will be worse treated than the slaves usually are who belong to those 
that control them. 1 maintain that this system is one of enornuius cru- 
elty, as every one must see at a glance. Its subjects will, most probably, 
be worked to death by the time their eight or ten years' service is over. 

Mr. Speaker, we have upon the coast of Africa ships to aid Great 
Britain in the suppression of the slave trade; and yet she is transporting 
men who are free comparatively, and vastly superior to the negro, and 
consigning them in vast numbers to tlie most cruel condition of slavery 
ever known. I submit whether it is not a mockery, whether it is not 
hypocritical in the United States and Great Britain to try to save a few 
negroi s while this enormous system is going on. I say that it is as hypo- 
critical as it would be for an individual, who had been robbing the poor 
of thousands systematically, to give away a few shillings ostentatiously 
on Sunday for charitable jnirposes. As we have this agreement with 
Great Britain, why not s[)eak out our sentiments manfully, and tell her 
tliat, if she does not abandon this, we will withdraw our squadron fj'om 
Africa, and no longer attempt to prevent the carrying away of a few 
negroes to Cuba, while countless numbers of white men are being 
enslaved ! 

The great objection to our acquiring Mexico as a whole, is to be found 
in the fact of the existence tliere of a large population of Indians and 
other inferior persons. Suppose Louisiana, Florida, or Texas, had been 
tilled up with a large number of inferior people, which we could not 
reduce to subjection : that fact would have rendered them useless to the 
United States. On the principles of humanity, in the first place, and 
secondly, upon the question of expediency also, I am against this system 
of filling up these now thinly inhabited neighboring regions with infe- 
rior and degraded races. Gentlemen must see that it is the ultimate 
policy of the United States, at some future day, whether ten, twenty, or 
fifty years hence, to acquire the greater portion of this teri'itory. I 
hold, sir, that our system will be better for that country than the system 
of Great Britain ; and that, therefore, it will be for the interest of all 
that region, as it unquestionably will be our policv some day to con- 
trol it. 

Gentlemen may say, however, suppose that the treaty is abrogated, and 
England refuses to yield : will you go to war with her ? That is thrown 
at us by way of intimidation. 1 have observed the course of the British 
Government, and they have two systems of ojieration against us. They 
may .be defined as wiiat Sammy Weller would call " insinivation and 
bluster." Many of our statesmen are so delighted to get compliments 
from the British press, and to be thought well of by British ofiicials, that 
they seem to forget the interest of their own country. I remember, a 
few years ago, when there was an investigation going on in the British 
Parliament, in relation to the expenses of their missions abroad, that Mr. 
Packenham, who had long been a minister here, was a witness, and he 
was asked what expenditure paid the best? Plis reply was, " that spent 
for dinners." Whether his American experience brought him to that 
conclusion or not, I do not know. I confess that I appreciate a dinner 



( 428) 

and civility as mnch as anybody ; 1)ut it in one thing to accept and re- 
turn courtesies, and it is another to abandon the interests of one's 
country. 

I have no doubt that every right-niinded Englishman will think better 
of American statesmen who, while accepting the civilities of foreigners, 
will still stand by the interests of their country rather than sell it for a 
mess of pottage. When these means fail, we are to be alarmed by threats 
of danger from England, and sometimes with great effect on tlie timid. 
I doubt much whether any Administration we have had since John 
Tyler's would have had the courage to accept Texas upon her applica- 
tion, in the face of the British protest against it. 1 am very certain that 
some of them would have professed to be afraid, and would have de- 
clined it. I think it absolutely necessary that this country should, in 
some respects, take a higher position abroad. An extremly mortifying 
fact was brought to my knowledge the other day. A bearer of dis]')atches 
came here from St. Domingo. He called to see me, thinking that Con- 
gress might be induced to do something. He says that the American 
commercial agent at the city of St. Domingo, with his family, and all 
American citizens in that county, are actually protected from massacre 
by Baez and his followers, by the British consul, and by the captain of 
an English ship who happened to be there, and who was ready to land 
four hundred men to protect them. I knew that in Europe, iVsia, and 
Africa, our citizens were in the habit of claiming to be Englishmen, in 
order to get British protection ; but I did not know that this system had 
to be resorted to in America, and almost in sight of our own shores. 

Is it not time that something should be done. There has been great 
difficulty upon the part of the Secretary of the Navy in finding a ship 
to send there to protect our citizens. I think that the African squadron 
might as well be employed upon that service. If we will submit to in- 
dignities from white men, it is rather too much to take insults and kicks 
from free negi'oes. Cannot the Gi'eytown affair at least be repeated in 
St. Domingo? 

But we are constantly met with the allegation that Congress will do 
nothing ; that Congress would not back the Executive. We knt)w 
\erj well the short-comings of Congi-ess ; but, in my judgment, there 
have been but few instances where the Executive has had occasion to 
call for, and has shown a disposition to use force, that Congress did not 
properly respond. Not only in the Maine boundary dispute, but during 
the Mexican war, the Government had everything it asked. The mis- 
fortune has been, that some of our Presidents heretofore have not shown 
the purpose to act, and the consequence has been, that Congress has 
been slow in advancing anything. Our Navy now costs $15,000,000 a 
year — more than the whole General Government cost in the year 1824 — 
and yet I am told that the Navy is not much more efficient than it was 
in 1816. This, if true, is attributable to the miserable system which 
now prevails in having ignorant clerks in the Departments at the heads 
of bureaus, to whom the management of the Department is committed, 
while the Secretary himself sometimes, not being familiar with the bu- 
siness, trusts it to iiis subordinates. I hope we shall have a reform in 
this respect. 



( 429 ) 

As far as concerns the present Administration, it lias not, as yet, had 
an opportunity of showinf>; its hand upon onr foreio'n policy. It has 
been occupied with certain domestic questions ; but, I think, from the 
antecedents of the President and the Secretary of State, we have a ri^ht 
to expect a more determined jiolicy. I read last session an extract from 
Mr. Buchanan's Ostend manifesto. The lani;ua<»;e is so ^-ood that I de- 
sire to repeat it again. On the 18th of October he says : 

" Under such circumstances, we ought neither to count the cost nor regard the 
odds which Spain might enlist against us. We forbear to enter into the question, 
whether the present condition of the island would justify such a measure ? We 
should, however, be recreant to our duty, be unworth}^ of our gallant forefathers, 
and commit base treason against our posterity, should we permit Cuba to be Afri- 
canized, and become a second St. Domingo, with all its attendant horrors to the 
white race, and suffer the flames to extend to our own neighboring shores, se- 
riously to endanger, or actually to consume, the fair fal)ric of our Union." 

These are bold and striking words. 

What are the views of our Secretary of State — the learned, accom- 
plished veteran, Cass ? Gentlemen will remember that in 1848, when 
he was before tlie country as the Democratic candidate for the Presi- 
dency, he took ground in favor of the occupation of Yucatan by the 
United States troops ; and only two years ago, in a letter to New York, 
he uses this language : 

" I am free to confess that the heroic effort of our countrymen in Nicaragua excites 
my admiration, while it engages all my solicitude. I am not to be deterred from the 
expression of these feelings by sneers, or reproaches, or hard words. He who does 
not sympathize witli such an enterprise has little in common witli me. 

"The ditRculties which General Walker has encountered and overcome will place 
his name high on the roll of the distinguished men of his age. He has conciliated 
tlie people he went to aid ; the government of which he makes part is performing its 
functions without opposition, and internal tranquility marks the wisdom of its policy. 
That magnificent region, for which God has done so much and man so little, needed 
some renovating process, some transfusion by which new life may be imparted to it. 
Our countrymen will plant there the seeds of our institutions, and God grant that 
they may grow up into an alnindant harvest of industry, enterprise, and Prosperity! 
A new day, I hope, is opening upon the States of Central America. If we are true to 
our duty, they will soon be freed from all danger of European interference, and will 
have a security in their own power against the ambitious designs of England far 
better than Clayton-Bulwer treaties or any other diplomatic machinery by which a 
spirit of aggression is sought to be concealed till circumstances are ready for active 
operation." 

Such are the views of General Cass. Now, sir, I propose to this 
House simply to respond to the views of the President's message, by 
indoi-sing them, condemning this Clayton-Pulwer treaty, and leaving 
him to take the necessary steps to rid us of it. I have no fear of any 
war arising out of the subject. Great Britain has vast pecuniary and 



(430) 

commercial interests involved in her relations with the United States, 
and it also would be very difficult for her to defend Canada and her 
other possessions against us. She is not rashly going to war with us. 
At this very time she is engaged in a Chinese war, and an East India 
war, and is, in addition to that, threatened with European difficulties. 
She, therefore, has no motive to seek war with us. The present English 
Cabinet is believed to be favorable to a liberal settlement of this ques- 
tion. Let us go forward and get it settled now. It is not, at this time, 
of much practical importance, and, therefore, it may be the more readily 
adjusted. If it is not done, in tlie future, when a practical question 
shall arise in relation to it, it may involve us in war. 

Mr. Bliss. I have listened with a great deal of attention, but do not 
understand what the object of this movement is. Do I understand the 
gentleman as advocating a policy leading to the seizure of Cuba and 
Central America? 

Mr. Clingman. No, sir. 

Mr. Bliss. What, then, is the idea ? 

Mr. Clingman. It is to abrogate this treaty. 

Mr. Bliss. But all the gentleman's argument is directed to explaining 
our standing and position in respect to Cuba and Centrul America ; and, 
as I understand it, no sooner is the Kansas question disposed of, than 
this Cuba and Central America question is raised, for the extension of 
slavery. 

Mr. Clingman. I cannot answer for the gentleman's understanding. 
This may not be a matter of very great practical importance now; but 
it is my judgment that, ten, twenty, or fifty yeai-s hence, it may be our 
policy to acquire those territories, and I desire to remove obstructions 
now. 

As I said before, suppose, when Great Britain protested against the 
annexation of Texas, a treaty had been enforced binding us not to 
acquire it: its annexation would, in that event, have led to war. The 
infraction of a positive agreement with her, in addition to an act to 
which she was hostile, must necessaril}^ have led to war. We had no 
obligations in the way, and no rupture resulted. I desire to remove all 
offensive alliances which ahall stand in our way hereafter. 

Mr. Giddings. I desire to ask the gentleman whether he is to be 
understood as advocating the annexation of Cuba, or whether he dis- 
cards that idea ? 

Mr. Clingman. I will answer the gentleman with pleasure, though I 
do not desire to embark in the discussion of that subject. I will say 
that I should be very glad to see Cuba annexed to this country. I 
would have been glad to get it upon fair and honorable terms four years 
ago, and I think the country ought to have taken it npon the happening 
of the Black Warrior affair. The Clayton-Bulwer treaty does not touch 
Cuba. We could get Cuba without abrogating this treaty. I care noth- 
ing in the world about it so far as Cuba is concerned. I should like to 
see Cuba a part of this Union. Its annexation would also stop the 
African slave trade and this more objectionable traffic in Chinese and 
East Indians wlio are carried there and destroyed. Would not the gen- 
tleman like to see an annexation of Cuba by which the slave trade and 
the Coolie trade would be stopped ? 



(431) 

Mr. Giddings. I do not rise to embarrass my friend. I would ask 
him this question : is he in favor of tlie acquisition of Cuba now ? 

Mr. Clino-man. If the gentleman will point me to anj honorable 
mode by which we can get Cuba, I will give that mode my support this 
very moment. If the Executive can make a treaty with Spain for Cuba, 
I would favor that project, provided the equivalent were not unreason- 
able. Some time ago I offered a resolution calling for information on 
Spanish affairs, but I understand that it is inexpedient to furnish that 
information up to this ti.ne. If our difficulties with Spain are not set- 
tled, I am willing, in the ultimate stage, to go to war with her, and 
then, if we can conquer Cuba, I will not complain of that result. 

Mr. Giddings. I understand the gentleman to refer to the Ostend 
circular 

Mr. Clingman. I do. 

Mr. Giddings. Does the gentleman approve of the terms of that 
document ? 

Mr. Clingman. Yes, sir. 

Mr. Giddings. That will answer my purpose. 

Mr. Clingman. I think I go quite as far as Old Buck does in this 
line. I have, Mr. Speaker, nearly used up the time which, by the cour- 
tesy of the House, has been given to me, and I must bring my remarks 
to a conclusion. All I desire is for the House fiiirly to indorse the posi- 
tion assumed by the President. 

Mr. Davis, of Maryland. Let me ask my friend to explain one point. 
His resolution speaks of abrogating the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Does 
he contemplate that the President, by his own authority, shall do that, 
or that negotiations shall go on to that effect '^: 

Mr. Clingman. The President has said, in his message, that it ought 
to have been abrogated long ago b}' consent of both parties. I have 
good reason to believe — I wish I could state all the reasons for my 
belief — that the British Cabinet are tired of the negotiations which have 
been going on for eight years upon this subject, and that they are now 
ready to adjust the question on honoral)le terms; and I have no doubt 
that the Executive, by proper effort, will be enabled to do it at this time. 
I do not know that it could be done twelve months hence, or at a later 
(\ay. But, by its abrogation, every gentleman will see that we will get 
rid of the shackles that now clog us, and be left as free from entangling 
alliances with European Powers as we had been from the days of Gen- 
eral Washington down to the ratification of this treaty. 

Mr. Barksdale. Does my friend mean to intimate that Great Britain 
is willing to give up Poatan ? 

Mr. Clingman. 1 will answer with pleasure. Great Britain, by the 
Dallas treaty, agreed to give up Roatan to Honduras, provided there 
was a guarantee that slavery should never go there. The United States 
would make no such guarantee, and that treaty was rejected. I have 
no doubt, however, that Great Britain will, in view of her treaty with 
Honduras, agree to abandon her claims in that quarter, and also with- 
draw on reasonable terms, her Mosquito protectorate. The feeling of 
the American people is against this Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Its current 
is setting so strongly in that direction that no one can expect to change 
it. Let the Government, then, do its duty, and we are again free, and 
the path of destiny is open before us. [Here the hammer fell.] 



(432) 



SPEECH 

AGAINST PROTECTIVE TARIFFS, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 
OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 10, 1859. 

The Senate having resumed the consideration of the following 
resolution, submitted by Mr. Bigler, on the 31st of January: 

Mesolved, As the opinion of the Senate, that the creation of a large public 
debt in time of peace is inconsistent with the trne policy of the United States; 
and as the present revenues are insufficient to meet the unavoidable expenses 
of the government, Congress should proceed without delay, to so readjust 
the revenue laws as not only to meet the deficit in the current expenses, but 
to pay off the present debt so far as it may be liable to immediate cancel- 
lation, 

Mr. Clingman said : 

Mr. President: I hope not to occupy the Senate at as great length 
as the gentlemen who have proceeded me on this question. The 
Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Bigler) remarked, in opening the 
debate, that he was acting under the instructions of his Legislature. 
My colleague and I have, likewise, been instructed to oppose all 
increase of duties upon the products of mining and manufacturing, 
and to insist upon making railroad iron free of duty. Here is a col- 
lision between States, and the appeal must be to reason. 

The distinguished Senator from Georgia (Mr. Toombs) who yester- 
day occupied the floor, covered a portion of the ground which is neces- 
sary to be occupied on this question ; and everybody knows that where 
his scythe has gone, there is not much left for anybody to glean. 
Feeling relieved from a part of the task I had undertaken, I expect 
to speak more particularly to another branch of the subject. The 
President of the United States has recommended specific duties. He 
makes no express recommendation for an increase of duties, or taxation. 

But the friends of higher protection have seized upon this occasion, 
and are making an effort to get increased duties. The Senator from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Bigler) says that he, with his friends, will be satis- 
fied with fifteen dollars a ton on bar iron; and his colleague (Mr. 
Cameron) says eighteen dollars is necessary. We all know iron is 
worth but little more than thirty dollars a ton in England, and 
this amounts to fifty or sixty per cent, on its value. It ?s an in- 
crease, therefore, of more than double the present rate of duty, w'hich 
is twenty-four per cent. The real question is, whether we are ready 
for that? They say it is necessary to protect American labor. How 
do they propose to effect it? Is not the case fairly stated in this way? 
A man in the northwest last year worked very hard, and by his labor 
produced four hundred bushels of wheat, worth $400. Another man 
in the South, working equally hard, produced eight bales of cotton, 
worth likewise $400. Each of these men proposes to exchange his 



(433) 

product for bar iron, and an Englishman stands ready to give them 
ten tons of it for his product; but a Pennsylvania iron-master says: 
"This man is a foreigner; I am your countryman; trade with me." 
They assent to it, and an exchange is proposed between them. He 
says: "My iron costs me more to make it than the English iron costs its 
manufacturer, and I cannot let you have more than seven tons." They 
decline his offer, and are not willing, in this way, to lose the value of 
three tons of iron. He then appeals to the government to impose a duty, 
or tax, of thirty per cent, on all purchases from the English, and it is 
done. One of tiiese men says : " I shall lose the value of three tons, if 
I trade with the Englishman ; I may as well trade with you. Take 
my wheat, and give me seven tons of iron." The Pennsylvanian, 
liowever, says: "I have supplied myself with wheat from my neigh- 
bor already; sell your wheat for money, and then buy my iron." He 
then goes to the Englishman and asks cash for his wheat, but is met 
w^ith this declaration : " I could give you ten tons of iron for your wheat, 
but I am not prepared to pay you the money." Suppose, however, he 
does succeed in selling for cash ; if he then purchases the iron 
from the Pennsylvanian, he loses three tons ; and if the other planter 
does likewise, he loses the value of three tons of iron also. I use this 
simple illustration, but it is a fair statement of the case; and the result 
is, that each of those individuals loses the value of three tons of iron, 
and the manufacturer gets six, and the government receives not one 
cent. That is the policy to which the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Cameron) is endeavoring to drive us, by excluding foreign pro- 
ductions altogether. If, however, it should turn out, as is usually the 
fact, that the Pennsylvanian has onl}^ seven tons of iron and cannot 
supply the demand of both, then one of these men has to purchase of 
the foreigner, and the result is, the government gets the value of three 
tons in duties; the Pennsylvanian gets three tons as protection, and 
these individuals lose six between them. 

Now, Mr. President, it is very easy to see that if the object of this 
taxation was to support the government, these two individuals might 
pay the tax with half the expenditure to themselves. They have to 
pay, on the one hand, to the government, and on the other, to the 
manufacturer, an equal amount. As the government received the 
value of only three tons, half that sum, paid by each of them, would 
have answered the purpose. For example: the importations last year 
of tea aiid coffee were about twenty-seven million dollars; and the 
consumption of sugar likewise about twenty-seven million dollars. 
Now, suppose you want to raise $5,000,000 by a tax ; if you impose it 
on tea and coffee, and the consumers pay that amount, the govern- 
ment gets all of it, because those articles are not made in the United 
States at all. Suppose, however, you impose the duty on sugar: they 
pay the $5,000,000, but one half of it goes to the sugar-planters, and 
the other half to the government; because about one half the sugar con- 
sumed is made in the United States. In fact, the government would 
receive only $2,500,000 ; and hence, to get $5,000,000, you would have 
to make the tax twice as high as if it were placed on tea land coffee. 
In other words a duty of ten per cent, on coffee and tea would give the 
55 



( 434 ) 

government as much money as would twenty per cent, on sugar, 
because half of the sugar tax would go to the planters and makers of 
sugar. 

But, sir, to return to my illustration. If these two individuals 
should complain of that, the Pennsylvanian tells them : "My iron 
establishment furnishes employment to American laborers." One of 
those men may say to him : "I keep a blacksmith's shop where the 
iron is worked up into plows and hoes and axes, and used as indus- 
trial tools; and this furnishes the means of employment to many." 
The other one says: "We are making in my section a railroad ; we are 
leveling hills and filling up valleys, to lay down iron rails as fast as we 
can get them; we employ now a vast amount of labor in making the road; 
and when we get it done, we shall open a market for our productions 
to the sea side, and in that way encourage all kinds of industr}'." It 
is demonstrable that the creation of a railroad will cause a larger 
demand for labor than the iron furnace where the rails are made. 
Then, what becomes of the argument as to the protection of American 
industry ? 

They say, however, that the}^ afford a home market at their manu- 
facturing establisments. But, in fact, the northwestern man, when he 
gets his wheat to Chicago, can have it carried to England as easily as 
to the Pennsylvania iron establishment; and even if he should carry 
it there, nine times out of ten they do not want it, because they are 
supplied by persons in the neighborhood. It is the same with cotton. 
It goes from Southern ports to Europe as cheaply and easily as it does 
to the manufacturers in the North, and the great bulk of it necessarily 
goes abroad. The burden, therefore, of this system is spread all over 
the country ; the benefit goes to the manufacturers and to those in their 
immediate locality. How much is this whole burden? I have taken 
pains to collect some facts, which I can present in a few minutes, and 
which I think will enable Senators to form some tolerably accurate 
idea of the amount which it costs the country. Before doing so, allow 
me to say one word as to the two rival theories on this subject. 

There was a distinguished South Carolinian — one of the ablest de- 
baters ever known in this country, or in any other — I mean the late Mr. 
McDuffie — who advocated a theor}^ which was known as the forty-bale 
theory, and derided by its opponents. I do not refer to it- because I 
think it sound ; for I regard it as demoustrabl}^ erroneous in part; but a 
reference to it will enable me to explain what I think the facts will show 
to bo the true theory of this system of taxation. 

Mr. McDuffie declared that the case could be so clearly stated that 
he never had seen it tried before a popular assembly without producing 
universal conviction. His statement was something like this: a com- 
pany of manufacturers, which he located in the North, would manu- 
facture goods to supply the State of South Carolina; another company 
of planters there undertook to produce cotton, rice and tobacco, to 
exchange them for goods to supply the demand of the same locality. 
He supposed eacli of these companies to bring in $100,000 worth of 
their goods*. When the manufacturing company bring in theirs, the}^ 
can sell them at once, as there is no tax upon them ; but let the export- 



(435) 

ing company or company of planters bring in their British goods, 
which they have obtained with the products of their own industry, 
and the custom-house officer says, "Before you sell these goods you 
must pay me forty per cent." — that was about the rate of duty in his 
day— that is .$40,000 on the $100,000. These men have already paid 
$100,000 in England, and they have to pay $40,000 to the government. 
If they sell for |100,000, as the Northern company does, of course they 
lose $40,000 ; they realize but $60,000. Everybody sees this must be 
so in the case stated. He argued that that was the true theory of the 
system; that for example, if they sold to the merchant, the merchant 
finding this burden was to fall on the goods, would give no more than 
they could realize; and even, if in the large way, you import specie, very 
soon you will import as much as can be used profitably, and thus raise 
the price of articles at home, which we must consume ; while our own 
productions were sold in foreign markets at the low rates there. In other 
W'Ords, he insisted that the import and accumulation of specie here 
would, in the end, produce a state of things wdiich did not change the 
result of the case stated by him. 

The error of this theory, as a whole, is obvious. Suppose the price 
of these goods should be increased in value; suppose this company, 
when they introduced them, should be able to sell them for $140,000, 
by adding the duty to the price; then they would lose nothing; the 
government would get its $40,000. The manufacturing company 
would likewise sell at the same price, and make a clear profit of $40,000. 
Thus the whole $80,000 would fall upon the consumers of the country' 
That is the theory of the gentlemen on the other side, who contend 
that the enhanced price falls on the consumers entirely. 

But let us take one step further. Suppose these planters themselves 
consume the goods; and we know that in the United States most men 
consume nearly as much as they sell, perhaps ninety-five per cent of 
it on the average. If they, therefore, should consume these goods, of 
course they would pay the $40,000 increased price by reason of the 
duty; and thus they lose $40,000, either as producers or consumers. 

There is one other view to take of the c[uestion. Let us assume now 
that the increase in price is less than the amount of the duty ; what will 
then be the effect? Take it at twenty per cent.; suppose thev are able 
to sell their goods for $120,000. They gave $100,000 for" them in 
England, and $40,000 to the government for duty, and sell them for 
$120,000; and they w\\\ still lose $20,000 as producers; but if they 
consume the goods they likewise lose $20,000 more as consumers, so 
that the}'' must lose $40,000 in any event; but the manufacturer may 
make a large profit. If he consumes them all he will lose nothing. 
His profit, though, will depend on the amount of his sales above his 
consumption, and we know in fact he, as a manufacturer, makes large 
profits. 

Then, Mr. President, I maintain that whatever burdens are levied 
by the tariff must be paid either by the producer of the articles sent 
abroad and exchanged for the dutiable goods, or it must fall on the 
consumers of the imports. It is usually divided between them, but 
they must pay it. Hence, when the farmer or planter furnishes the 



( 436 ) 

exports, and also consumes the imports obtained for them, he must 
pay this tax; and thus the system, either way, is just as oppressive to 
him as Mr. McDuffie supposed. If this be true, the facts ought to 
verify the theory ; and it is on this point that I present some statis- 
tics for the consideration of the Sena(e. I first ask the attention of 
Senators to the prices of cotton during a long period. 

It was said, Mr. President, by a distinguished statesman, Mr. Fox, 
as great a debater as England ever produced, that as to questions of 
political economy and tariffs, he did not pretend to understand them, 
because the facts were too complicated. Since his day, however, a great 
deal has been done in the collection of statistics ; and I now propose 
to show that the successive tariffs have operated unfavorably on pro- 
duction at home — I mean on the domestic imports sent abroad ; and I 
think I have facts enough to present to satisfy every Senator on that 
point. It is sometimes said that you can show anything by the prices 
of cotton, for you find cotton high and low under all sorts of tariffs. 
That is true, if you take a short period, as it may mislead you, because 
there are disturbing causes. The amount of the production, the extent 
of the demand, and financial difficulties affect it. In a long period, 
however, these disturbing elements will be neutralized. By a wide 
induction science arrives at the truth. Suppose it were desirable to 
compare the amount of rain which falls at Washington with some 
other place in the tropics ; you could not determine it by an examina- 
tion of a short period, because there are, in succession, rain and sun- 
shine and storm and drought in all counteies ; but if you could ascer- 
tain how much rain fell here and at some other point for the last ten 
or twenty years, it would be an exact measure of all that is to fall in 
a future period of similar length. If you want to determine which of 
two localities, or which of two occupations is the healthiest, you can- 
not do it by observing a small number of individuals ; but if you take 
a large one, it is found there is almost mathematical accurac}' in these 
comparisons. 

In this wa}^ let us look at the effect upon cotton in this instance, 
because the statistics as to that are more complete than those of other 
products. I present a table covering a period of thirty eight years, in 
wfiich I have grouped the average price of cotton during the continu- 
ance of each successive tariff: 

Average price of Cotton. 

From 1821 to 1824 inclusive 15 cents. 

" 1825 1828 13.4 

" 1826 1828 10.9 

" 1828 1832 9.7 

" 1833 1837 14.3 

" 1838 1842 10.8 

" 1843 1846 7.0 

" 1847 1851 9.5 

" 1851 1858 9.96 

" 1847 1858 9.8 



( 437 ) 

The first high tariff, or one of a protective character, within the 
range of this list of prices, was that of 1(S"24. I have the average i)rice 
of cotton for the four years whicli preceded that tariff. From 1821 to 
1824, inclusive, the price was fifteen cents a pound. That was the 
average through the whole period. 

In 1824, a tariff' was passed increasing the duties largely, and that 
continued for just four years up to 1828. In 1825, Senators remember 
that there was a remarkable speculative rise in the price of cotton. It 
went up during part of that year very high, and averaged twenty cents 
a pound for the whole year. That rise was purely a matter of specu- 
lation, and it fell again soon after. Nevertheless , including this year 
of speculation in the four, cotton fell during these four years to thirteen 
and four-tenths cents per pound. If, however, we exclude this year of 
speculation, and take the other three years, its average price was only 
ten and nine tenths per pound, or nearly sixty per cent, less than 
before the existence of the tariff. 

In 1828, another tariff highly protective was passed, and that con- 
tinued just for years. From 1829 to 1832, the average price of cotton 
was nine and seven-tenths cents, another large fall consequent upon 
the passage of a higher protective tariff. In 1832, Congress modified 
the tariff by making a large free list; and in the winter of 1833 fol- 
lowing, passed Mr. Clay's compromise, making great reductions. That 
continued in force for ten years, until the tariff' of 1842. Now, for a 
reason immediately to be stated, I divide this period into two of five 
years each. I find that from 1833 up to 1837, cotton rose to fourteen 
and three-tenths cents — an increase of forty per cent, on the previous 
prices under the high tariff; at the end of that five years, to wit, in 
1837, there was a remarkable monetary convulsion . It is well known 
to gentlemen all around, that the State bank deposit system, which 
was then tried, led to an enormous expansion of the currency. The 
deposit banks themselves had issued thirteen dollars in paper for one 
in specie. There was a crash, or break up, and for the next four or 
five years, prices were very much reduced. This was the case both in 
England and in the United States, and it affected cotton a*nd every- 
thing else; but, nevertheless, for the five years from 1837 up to 1842, 
the price of cotton was ten and eight-tenths cents, considerably higher 
than it was under the tariff' of 1828, which had preceded it. 

In 1842 was passed a highly protective tariff", prohibitory on many 
articles, and that endured four years. We were told the other day, and 
it is often said from time to time, that this tariff of 1842 restored pros- 
perity. I do not believe a word of it. The country had been laboring 
for four or five years to get out of debt, and the people had done so, 
and business was ready to revive again. But let us see how cotton fared 
under the four years of that tariff. From 1843 to 1846, it was at seven 
cents a pound — a heavy fall upon the prices during the hard times 
previous. In 1846, the tariff was modified by a large reduction of 
duties, and we have had that tariff in operation nearly ever since. In 
the ffrst five years following that reduction, from 1847 to 1851 inclu- 
sive, I find that cotton rose to nine and a half cents a pound — a large 
increase; and taking the seven years following, up to the present time, 



(438) 

it is nine and ninety-six hundredths — say ten cents a pound; and if 
you take the whole twelve years from 1846 to the present time, we find 
that it averages nine and eight tenths cents a pound — just forty per 
cent, higher than it was under the tariff of 1842. 

You will come to the same result if you take the years of large pro- 
ductions in each period, or take those of small production and high 
prices, as I have found by taking the average. In other words, any 
gentleman will find that as the tariff was high, cotton was low; and 
the reverse. 

Now, remember, sir, we have gone over a period of thirty-eight years, 
and six distinct changes. There was the condition which preceded 
the tariff of 1824; then, secondly, the condition which followed it; 
thirdly, that of 1828 ; fourthly, that of 1832-'33 ; fifthly, that of the 
tariff of 1842 ; and, sixthly, the period since, under that of 184G. If 
you go througli all these periods, you will find the changes exactly as 
I state. But the case does not rest on this alone. Let us look for a 
moment at other products. I will not weary the Senate by going 
into details as to them ; but I say, and each Senator can verify it 
for himself, if you take all the exports, during the four years of the 
tariff of 1842, of cotton, rice, tobacco, and everything, you will find that 
they brought $30,000,000 less annually than they would have done at 
the prices of the previous four years ; and if the products which were 
sold in the four years that followed the tariff of 1846 had been sold at 
the prices of 1842, they would have brought |30,000,000 a year less. 
That is to say, taking a period of twelve years, the four intermediate 
ones of which were occupied by the tariff of 1842, it will be found that, 
during its existence, we were losing $30,000,000 a year on our exports. 

But, sir, not only were the prices lower under the high tariff, but as 
the tariffs were reduced, the exports largely increased in quantity as 
well as in value. I find that during the existence of the tariff" of 1842, 
the amount of breadstuffs which were sold for those four years aver- 
aged only $18,000,000 a year; and for tlie twelve years since they 
have averaged $46,000,000 — two and a half times as much. It may be 
well enough to remark in this connection, that, for the last five years, 
flour has been fifty-four per cent, higher than it was during the oper- 
ation of the tariff of 1842; tobacco one hundred and fifty per cent, 
higher. Rice, and everything else, has advanced. And if you take all 
the exports under the tariff of 1842, their whole amount is just $110,- 
000,000 a year upon the average, and the imports $] 08,000,000. For 
the last five years the exports are $316,000,000, on the average, and the 
imports $308,000,000. In other words, in twelve years, while the pop- 
ulation of the country had increased not quite forty per cent., we have 
had nearly three-fold increase in oar exports and our imports. 

We have seen that we appear to have lost $30,000,000 a year, by the 
tariff of 1842, on those exports of $110,000,000. If you applied the 
same rule to the present one, we should be losing nearly ^90,000,000 a 
year ; that is, if the products sold for the last five years had been sold 
at the prices which prevailed under the tariff of 1842, the country 
would have got about $90,000,000 less for them. This, too, recollect, 
is a comparison between two protective tariffs : that of 1842 v/as ver}" 



(439) 

high; that of 1846 is moderately high, though it was a step in the 
direction of free trade. Now, suppose we could take the whole distance; 
suppose we could actually come to free trade: there is not a Senator 
here who has ever made the comparison, who will not say that the 
step from the tariff of 1846 to free trade is a longer one than that from 
the act of 1842 to that of 1846 ; in other words, if we gain $90,000,000 
a year by substituting the duties of 1846 for those of 1842, we should 
gain more than $90,000,000 b}^ coming to free trade. In point of fact, 
I have no doubt that we lose $100,000,000 a year, or more, as produ- 
cers, under the operations of the present tariff. 

But gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber say that all this is 
a mistake; that the burden falls on the people entirely as consumers. 
Well, let us look at their theory for a few moments, and see if it will 
help them any. We have collected more than $63,000,000 of taxes by 
means of the tariff of 1846, in one year. That sum is first paid by the 
importers; but the importers put a percentage on the goods when 
they sell to the retail dealers ; and the retail dealers put a large profit, 
generally more than fifty per cent., on the price when they sell to the 
consumers ; so that if you put all the profit of both these classes, you 
will find that the $60,000,000 paid to the government costs actually 
more than $100,000,000 to the consumers. There can be no doubt 
about that. The consumers of the country are obliged to pay more 
than $100,000,000 when the government gets $60,000,000, from 
imposts. That is equal to more than $400,000 to each congressional 
district. 

But the case does not stop here. The manufacturers likewise 
receive a large profit. I should like to know how much they estimate 
it to be worth. They tell us all around if you repeal the tariff their 
business will be ruined. They tell us that they supply three or four 
times as many goods as are imported. In fact many of the merchants 
inform me that they believe two-thirds of the dutiable goods are made 
in this country. If that be the case, and the price is enhanced to the 
same extent with the duty, there must be, at the least, two hundred 
million dollars more to fall on the consumer. I do not think it 
amounts to that much ; I think it probable that many persons who 
are near the factories purchase rather cheaper on that account. But 
suppose you take it at the sum of $134,000,000; that, added to the 
other now paid to the government, makes the entire amount of 
$234,000,000, or $1,000,000 to each congressional district. But, if it 
be assumed that the bounty paid to the manufacturers is only as much 
as the tax paid to the government, it will amount to $200,000,000 in 
all, or above eight hundred thousand dollars for each congressional 
district in the United States. 

Now, gentlemen will tell me that this must be a mistake; that the 
people would not pay so much. Sir, they would not if they knew it. 
Let us consider it in this way for a moment. The importers now pay 
these duties, and they charge them to the consumers as a part of the 
price; but suppose you reverse the mode, and put your tax collectors 
at the little retail stores ; you place a man, I say, at every retail store 
in the country to collect there the duties ; he looks on and charges the 



(440) 

taxes according to the purchases; he says to one man, j^ou have 
bought a dollar's worth of sugar, and you must pay me twenty-four 
cents tax on that; to a second, you have purchased five dollars' worth 
of iron, you must pay me $1 20 on that; to a third, you have bought 
ten dollars' worth of broadcloth, pay me $2 40; to a fourth, that salt 
you have bought is worth two dollars, I must have forty-eight cents 
tax on that: if it were done in that way you would see an excitement. 
It would be aggravated, when, for example, the man who paid taxes 
on iron saw that his neighbor came in and bought a quantity of cop- 
per and paid no taxes at all ; the man who paid taxes on sugar saw 
that somebody else bought tea and did not pay anything on that ; and 
they all saw the manufacturers come in and get their dye-stuffs and 
chemicals and " free wool," and whatever else they wanted to use, with- 
out paying anything at all. Does not every Senator see that this has 
to be paid, in fact, and that it is wholly immaterial whether it is paid 
by the importer, and thrown on the consumer in an increased price of 
the article, or collected in the way I have described ? 

I say then, Mr. President, that whether you adopt the theory that 
the producer pays a large part of this, or that the consumer pays it 
all, it leads you to the same result. Gentlemen say that the tariff does 
not raise prices at all on the consumer. That was the argument of 
the gentleman from Pennsylania (Mr. Bigler) the other day. If it 
does not, why do they want it? If it does not raise prices on the con- 
sumer, is it not obliged to fall, in the case stated by me, on the home 
producer? Somebody has to pay for it. You cannot throw much of 
it on the foreigner. I admit that by crippling trade, you injure him 
to some extent; you diminish somewhnt the amount of his sales, and 
hurt him somewhat ; but as he has all the markets of the world to 
choose among, of course your duties will not damage him much. I 
say, then, these gentlemen have to choose between two views; either 
that the producer pays a large part of this, as I contend, and as the 
facts which I have produced, and which I challenge them to meet and 
explain away, show, or it all falls on the consumer. If it falls on the 
consumer, you have a burden of $200,000,000 on the whole country. 
Who gets the benefit? The government receives ^5^60,000,000, and the 
manufacturers get the rest. The manufacturing establishments are 
located in New England, New York and Pennsylvania, mainly, and 
some in New Jersey. Thus about one-third of the Union gets all the 
benefit, while the burden falls on the Northwest and the South — two- 
thirds of the country. 

I have thought that some of our Southern men made a mistake in 
former arguments on this question. They endeavored to make it 
appear that it was a Northern and Southern question. The tendency 
of that was to array the whole North, as a body, in favor of protec- 
tion. It is my deliberate judgment, that the Northwestern States 
suffer quite as much as any part of the Union. They are far in the 
interior, and these taxes are occumulated by successive profits. I have 
no doubt they suffer more than the Atlantic States, but all the agri- 
culture of the country is heavily oppressed in this way. Remember, 
too, that agriculture is the great business of the country. 



(441) 

But, sir, I have shown that our exports and imports have largely 
increased under lower duties; I might refer also to their effect on our 
tonnage. I find that the tonnage in 1821 was 1,298,000, tons and in 
1846, 2,562,000 tons, not quite doubling in twenty-six years ; and in 
1858, it is 5,049,000 tons, nearly double what it was in 1840; that is, 
the increased tonnage in twelve years, under the tariff of 1846, is as 
great relatively, and much greater absolutely, than it was in the pre- 
vious twenty-six years. 

But gentlemen tell us that this system of trade is ruining the 
country; that we are creating an immense foreign debt; and the 
Senator from Pennsylvania, the other day, said that that we were 
buying more than we could pay for. Why, Mr. President, if you look 
to our exports for the last five years you will find that they exceed the 
imports. He says our people can only consume nine dollars' worth 
annually per head of foreign articles. How does he arrive at that 
result? Under some of the previous tariffs men were not able to con- 
sume, and did not consume, more than four or five dollars' worth ; but 
suppose you say to a farmer, "now you are eating and drinking too 
much ; you are living too high ;" can he not, if true, reply to you, " I 
pay for all these things with my crop, and have a surplus besides." If 
the Senator from Pennsylvania will compare the exports and imports 
he will find that the exports, according to the statements made, actuall}' 
exceed the imports; and hence, we may well say, that as long as our 
people are able to pay for all they use, they are not buying too much. 

Under the tariff of 1842, there were iB2,000,000 more of exports, on 
an average annually, than imports, as shown by the Treasury report. 
For the last five years there are $8,000,000 more, pretty nearl}'- the 
same proportion. But the old idea of the balance of trade has been 
too often exploded to require refutation here. Everybody knows that 
if our imports were not, in fact, more valuable than our exports, we 
should lose mone}^ upon them. For example, a ship takes a cargo of 
cotton from New York, goes to Liverpool, buys British goods, and 
returns. If those goods were worth, in fact, no more than the cotton, 
there would be a loss. There is the use of the ship, the pay of the cap- 
tain and the men, the insurance, and all the profits to come into 
the account. In point of fact, our imports must, in the long run of 
years, exceed the exports ; and that they do not do so on the Treasury 
tables, I have no doubt, arises from the fact that there is smuggling 
and undervaluation ; but that seems to have existed in about the same 
ratio under the tariff of 1842 and that of 1846. 

There is especially a complaint against the British trade, which, it 
is said, is ruiniiig the countr3\ Why, sir, we sold last year to Great 
Britain §187,000,000 of our products, and bought §127,000,000— I 
mean, the whole British dominions took from us exports, to them, of 
$60,000,000 more than our imports from them; and with England 
alone the difference is $61,000,000. If you take our trade with the 
British dominions, as shown in the commerce and navigation reports 
for the last four years, you will find that we sell them, on an average, 
844,000,000 in each year more than we buy for them. There is, in 
fact, a large specie balance due us from England. Where does it go? 
56 



(442) 

Our commerce with Cuba is the other way. We sell Cuba only half 
as much as we buy from her. The same condition of things exists 
with reference to China, and other nations ; and it is only by means 
of this balance in our British trade that we make up the deficiency 
without exporting specie. 

But gentlemen refer to the fact, that specie is constantly going out ; 
and they say that we are being ruined by this system. They forget 
that, in the last ten or twelve years, the United States has become a 
great gold producing country. We produce S50,000,000 a year, or 
more, of gold. We cannot use it all ; and it is just as necessary 
to export our surplus gold as our surplus cotton. Notwithstanding 
the large exports of gold, we find that there is a constant accumula- 
tion of specie in this country under the system of free trade, as it is 
called. For example, in 1846, the specie in the country was estimated, 
by the Treasury Department, at $97,000,000. It is now at least $350,- 
000,000. In fact, if you make a reasonable allowance for what 
emigrants must have brought to this country, I should not be sur- 
]jrised if it is $400,000,000. Thus, while our population has increased 
less than forty per cent., the amount of specie in the country, in twelve 
years, has increased nearly ten times as much. 

But how has it been with the manufacturing establishments them- 
selves? While every body is prospering, how has it been with them ? 
If we are to believe tlie statements of the gentlemen from Pennsyl- 
vania, ^nd others, who speak on this subject from time to time, they 
are in a most lamentable condition. We are told, ten years ago, that 
the iron business had all been broken down. We have been told, in 
each successive year, that it has been ruined. If a man merely heard 
the speeches made on that side, he would come to the conclusion that 
there was not one pound of iron made in the United States. 

Looking, howevei', to the census, I find that, in 1840, there were 
made in the United States two hundred and eighty-six thousand tons ; 
and, in 1850, ten years afterwards, after a trial of four years of the 
tariff" of 184G, it had increased to five hundred and sixty- four thou- 
sand tons, or double ; and in 1855, they say themselves it has run up 
to a million of tons. Here is a business that has gone up in fifteen 
years from two hundred and eighty-six thousand tons to a million, or 
a four-fold increase. Now, I ask what branch of business has pro- 
gressed more rapidly? The production of cotton has not equaled it. 
Take agriculture, generally, and it falls far behind it. There has 
been an enormous increase. I find thal^ according to the statement 
of the Secretary of the Treasury in 1847, the exports of iron, and 
articles made of iron, were $1,167,000; and in 1858, $4,729,000— an 
increase of three hundred and five per cent, in eleven years. Does 
that look as if the business was failing? 

But we have some other data that will aid us in coming to a conclu- 
sion on this point. I find that the census of 1850 represents the wages 
of men engaged in the iron establishments at $1.06 a day in Pennsyl- 
vania, while the male labor engaged in the cotton factories of that 
State get only sixty-five cents a day. They pay laborers in the iron 
establishments, therefore, fifty per cent, more than they pay those in 



(443) 

the cotton factories. It may be said that the labor in the iron estab- 
lishments is a different kind, and therefore 3^011 must pay more; but 
when I come to look at the prices paid in North Carolina, I find by 
the census of 1850, that in the iron establishments in North Carolina, 
the price of male labor was thirty-nine cents a day, and in the cotton 
establislimonts forty-three cents — very little difference, but cotton the 
highest. In Georgia, the iron labor is forty-four cents and the cotton 
fifty-five cents. It appears, therefore, that in Georgia and North Car- 
olina the prices paid in the cotton factories to male labor, and in the 
iron works are about equal; in Pennsylvania they pay fifty per cent, 
more to labor in the iron factories. That proves that the iron business 
is most profitable in that State. These being the prices in Georgia and 
North Carolina, in 1850, they must have been about the prices of agri- 
cultural labor; that is, the farmers of the country were realizing only 
some forty or fifty cents per day, while in Pennsylvania men in the 
iron establishment were making more than a dollar per day. 

Now, what justice is there in taxing men who are not making more 
than fifty cents a day, for the benefit of those who are making more 
than a dollar? Ilie gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cameron) said 
that the people of his State were standing idle, and were looking to the 
President to do something for them ; that if he would work as hard 
for them as he did for the Lecompton bill, they would have a good 
time of it. Sir, I was reminded of Falstafl"'s speech, so often quoted: 
" Hal, when thou art king, rob me the exchequer." These Pennsylva- 
nians, according to the statement of the Senator from that State, say 
to Mr. Buchanan, "You are now President; plunder the people at 
large for our benefit." According to the showing of the Senator him- 
self, we are told that if you were to repeal the tariff, or if you do not 
increase the duties, the people will all quit making iron. I do not 
believe a word of it. 

Mr. Bigler. Who said that? 

Mr. Clingman. I do not know that my friend said it ; but I ask him 
whether he said that the iron business would be abandoned if you 
resorted to free trade ? Has he not heard it said often ? 

Mr. Bigler. I want to remind my friend from North Carolina that 
whatever I may have said on the general subject of the prostration of 
the iron business at this time, I did not discuss that matter at all ; 
I made no allusion to it. I did not want to speak of what would be 
the condition of affairs if the tariff were suspended; but I said that it 
was erroneous to assume, in reference to iron and other great staples, 
that if the home productions ceased entirely, and the tariff was cut off, 
they could be purchased at twenty-four per cent, less in consequence. 

Mr. Clingman. AVell, I will ask the Senator whether he has not 
often heard it said, and whether he did not hear it suggested by his 
colleague and others? But I have better evidence even than that, in 
the memorial which has been sent here, and which the Senate has been 
appealed to, to reprint at this session — I mean the old memorial of the 
iron convention which met in 1849, and which lies on the table now. 
I find, on looking at it, that they go into a minute statement of the 
cost of making iron ; and how much do they put it at? They say that 



( 444 ) 

they cannot possibly make iron for less than $49 a ton at the works, 
and that it costs $4 75 to get it to market ; and hence, when they sell 
iron for $55 a ton, they only clear $1 25 on it. At the very time they 
sent this memorial to us, you could buy merchantable bar iron in 
Liverpool at |2G or $27 a ton, and, duties off, get it here for about $34; 
so that, according to their statement, it is necessary that we should 
impose a duty of $20 a ton to enable them to make it at all. 
They said it could not be reduced for this reason, that the price of 
wages was so high in this country, that in England they could get for 
$3 71 as much labor as was gotten for $11 in the United States. They 
told us further, that the cost of making iron was mainly in the labor; 
that nine-tenths of it was labor, and the rest material. It turned out 
by their own showing, that the British, at their price of labor, could 
produce iron at $20 a ton as easily as they could at $50. If that be 
true, will any gentleman contend they were going to continue the bus- 
iness if the tariff were repealed? No, sir; according to their own 
showing. But though that idea has been' preached to us again and 
again, I do not believe a word of it. In point of fact, I do not think 
there is that difference in wages. The Senator from Rhode Island 
who sits near me, (Mr. Allen,) who is particularly well-informed on 
this subject, has told me again and again that he has noticed for years 
past that the prices of wages in the establishments of England, and he 
gets them frequently, do not average generally more than thirty per 
cent, aijd he is confident not as much as forty per cent, below the 
prices of labor in this country. 

Remember, we have now a duty of twenty -four percent, on iron; and 
besides that, the cost of putting it on ship-board, and freights, and every 
thing else, as estimated by an iron committee from Pennsylvania, and I 
think correctly, amounts to as much more. They gave me a statement, 
for my use, some sessions ago, and they showed that the cost of importing 
it, independently of duties, was equal to twenty-seven per cent, on the 
then price of iron. It was a little lower then than now. My friend 
from Georgia suggests that putting a duty on that cost would make it 
twenty-five. If you take either twenty-four or twenty-five per cent, as 
the duty, and add it to the twenty-seven, 3'ou have fifty-one or fifty-two 
per cent. Our producers, therefore, have, under the present tariff, in 
our own ports, an advantage equal tofift^- per cent, over the foreign pro- 
ducer. If they actually paid forty per cent, more in wages, they would 
still have largely the advantage ; for they admit, themselves, that the raw 
material is cheaper in this country than in England ; so that they ought 
to make a profit at a price largely under the present rate. That accords 
with the statement I produced, that the iron production has increased 
four-fold in the last fifteen years. Everything goes to show it. If you 
swept away the tarift' to-day, it is possible some few weak establishments 
would go down, and it might reduce the price of wages ; but I do not 
know that it would. 

To prevent misrepresentation, I say that I should be gratified if the 
iron men of Pennsylvania could get not only one dollar, but ten dollars, 
for every day's labor ; but the question is, will you tax men who are not 
making fifty cents a day, perhaps, all the year round, to enable others 



(445) 

to get more than a dollar a day? Suppose you repealed tlie tariff alto- 
gether, and wages were reduced a little ; they would still get nearly 
twice as much as the agricultural laboi'ers of the country. Do you 
think they will abandon the business ? Why, sir, there are many parts 
of the United States where men have raised corn when it was worth 
only ten cents a bushel. I know it used to be the case out in Kentucky. 
I do not not know w])at the present prices are, but corn was produced 
and sold at ten cents a bushel; and those Kentuckians not only pursued 
the business, but they used to fatten large numl)ers of hogs and other 
stock, and drive them six or seven hundred miles to market. They used 
to drive a hundred thousand or more through the little town in which I 
live, going South. These men worked as hard as any on earth ; and 
they are the men to be taxed on their iron, sugar, and other articles of 
consumption, to enable somebody else to get enormously large profits. 
That is the point of view in which I oppose the system. It is to benefit 
a few large iron-masters and other manufacturers. 

But again, sir, we are told that raw materials ought to l)e made fi'ee. 
I will give very briefly the different excuses of the manufacturers for an 
increase of taxation. They present many plausible ai'guments to us. 
What are raw materials ? I suppose that the common understanding is 
tliat they are articles which, in their present state, are to be worked up 
into a better thing. According to that standard, coal and iron are raw 
materials for the manufacturer of pig metal, and they ought, therefore, 
to be free. Well, pig metal is raw material for the manufacturer of bar 
iron, and Scotch ]>ig, and all otlier pig ouglit to be free of duty. Tlie 
bar iron that he makes is the raw material tluit the blacksmith works 
up and sells to the farmers for ])lows and hoes and axes. Ask a farmer 
what are the raw materials he requires for a crop, and he will answer, 
that they are his manure, his working tools, his stock, and his labor. 
The groat working agent in this country is man ; and what is necessary 
for his subsistence, I think, ought to come in as raw" material — the pro- 
visions, clothing, and everything he uses. Why shall not tliese go into 
this working machine ? Are you to say that everything is to be free 
which facilities reproduction ? for I suppose that is about the idea of 
some political economists. They divide consumption into that which is 
productive and that which is unproductive ; and the result is that you 
will have to make everything free, except perhaps jewelry and pictures 
and statues, a great part of which are now in fact free. The whole idea 
of drawing any such distinctions is preposterous. It is a cunning excuse 
of manufacturing gentlemen, who want to get what they wish to use 
free of duty. They do not intend to pay any part of the taxes them- 
selves, but they mean that they shall be thrown heavily upon other 
people. 

There is another of their peculiarities and misfortuues that I must 
comment upon. They tell us it is a great universal law, that whenever 
you tax a tiling, you ultimately make it cheap. I have said to some of 
these gentlemen, you want your raw materials, your chemicals, your 
dye-stuffs, &c., all very cheap ; now let us tax them. The very moment 
you put this question to one of these gentlemen, he gets indignant. He 
is just as indignant as a quack would be, if told to take his own medi- 
cine. If it really be true that they are laboring under a misfortune of 



(446) 

this sort, that the great universal laws of production will not benefit 
them, they deserve to be pitied. 

I remember the fable of a man who prayed to Jupiter to pass a law 
by which he should never be capable of being wet in any way. He 
found it convenient at the time ; but in the end, the suspension of the 
general law as to him was very injurious, and he prayed to be restored 
to the common lot of mankind. Now, if there be any device, or if 
Jupiter can help us in any way to put these manufacturers in a situa- 
tion where the great laws of trade and protection will operate in their 
favor, I hope it will be eifected. 

I say, if you want to get money, put your tax upon the free list. The 
importation of articles on the list amount to $80,000,000, and a portion 
of that, about twenty million dollars, is specie. There is about sixty 
million dollars besides, on which duties might well be levied. Tax 
that; let wool and chemicals, efec, be taxed. But the manufacturers 
ought to be in favor of it ; for, if they believe in their own doctrine, 
those things will be cheap enough in a few years. Most of them can be 
produced in the United States. It is true, some of them cannot be had 
here ; but will tliey endeavor to persuade the country that copper can- 
not be obtained in the United States ? Will they say tliat most of these 
chemicals cannot be produced here ? Will they tell us that wool can- 
not be grown in the United States ? The whole idea is preposterous. 

But sir, there is an effort to make the impression on the public mind, 
that the late disturbance in trade has been produced by the tariff of 
1857, or at any rate by low duties. In the report of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, lie shows clearly that it could not have been by the tariff 
of 1857, because the whole imports that year wei-e seventy-odd millions 
less than they had been the previous year. If we imported less, and 
also got the goods cheaper — and that is the theory — of course it has not 
hurt anybody. I account for it in a very different way. I attribute it 
not to the foreign debt, because our exports have been exceeding our 
imports, according to the Treasury statements, a little more than tliey 
did formally ; I do not believe there is any large foreign debt existing in 
balances in this way. But our Americans are fond of speculation ; 
they are enterprising ; and when they get credit they run it to a great 
extent. I have no doubt many men in New York have imported goods 
on credit, supposing they would be able to make a profit and to pay for 
them ; but the great indebtedness has been in the country ; and you can 
only prevent tliat by stopping our credit system. You will always be 
liable to revulsions, under an extended system of credit, and you will 
not get rid of them by a tariff. You may go back to the tariff of 1842, 
and they will occur. I admit the vicissitudes will nut be as great. In 
other words, if you leave the country free, men in times of prosperity, 
are more likely to go too fast, just as a man whose limbs are free, is 
more apt to move too fast than one who has a mill-stone on his back. 
If you hobble your horses to prevent their running away, they must 
travel very slowly at all times. 

If gentlemen can succeed in crippling trade, as they seek to do, by 
high protective duties, I think it quite likely that these revulsions will 
not be so decided ; but remember, this is the recession of an advancing 
wave. There is an advancing tide going forward very rapidly ; occa- 



( 447 ) 

sionallj it may come back a little ; but I know of no mode of prevent- 
ing this, unless jou can diminish the credit system in this country. 
Probably the bankrupt law, which the Senator fruni Georgia introduced, 
or some such measure as that, applied to corporations, might answer the 
purpose ; but when you propose that, it will not meet the views of gen- 
tlemen on the other side of the Chamber, who represent the tariff inter- 
est. In my judgment, the reason why we are recovering so rapidly 
from the late financial revulsion, is owing to the fact that, under the 
sub-Treasury system, and the change in the system of deposits, we have 
a large amount of specie, so that thei'e is a ver}^ rapid recovery. I deny 
that tliere is any general indebtedness between tJiis country and Eno-- 
land, growing out of the operations of trade. 

As far as the South is concerned, it never was in so healthy a condi- 
tion. That remark was true a year ago or more. In fact, so sound was 
the condition of the Southern States, that it struck them with profound 
surprise when this revulsion came on. We have had large exports of 
cotton for the last two years, and very small imports. Large balances 
are now outstanding in our favor, and I have no doubt on earth that the 
importations of this year will be very large, because the quantity of 
goods now on hand has been greatly reduced. 

There is one sort of indebtedness which exists, and, which cannot be 
prevented by Congress. I mean the borrowing of money in Eui-ope. 
The State of Pennsylvania has borrowed thirty or forty millions. My 
own State has borrowed some. Nearly all the States have borrowed. 
That has created a very large debt tliere ; but if the money has been 
well spent, it has added to our prosperity. I maintain, then, that under 
our existing system, independently of this borrowing, there would be no 
indebtedness in Europe; but it ought to be the other way. 

I confess that I attribute a great deal of the large imports and exports, 
for the last ten or twelve years, to our railroads. I find that in France 
in 181:3, when they had next to no railroads, all the exports and imports 
were $4:35,0()0,00d a year. They have now gone up to $920,000,000. 
Tliey have more than doubled in that country. You have the same 
effect here. By enabling the people to get their produce to market, they 
sell a great deal more and at better profits. This will sti-ike the mind 
of every man at once. 

Then, why should we not make raili'oad iron free of duty ? We have 
paid, I believe, in the last seventeen years, twenty millions and upwards 
of duties on railroad iron. It was estimated a few years ago that all 
the capital invested in the iron manufactures was only $20,000,000. In 
ten or twelve years' time, at the rate at which we have been paying for 
the last few years, we should pay duties enough to buy out all the iron 
establishments. I do not want them discontinued or bought out ; far 
from it, but I submit to Senators whether it is a wise policy to cripple 
the industry of the country in this way, by a tax upon railroad bars 
which these men admit they cannot make as cheaply as we get them 
elsewhere. 

Mr. President, I have occupied more of the time of the Senate than I 
desired to do. I have touched on some points that, it struck me, miglit 
be important to bring to the attention of the public. The question now 
before us is, shall we increase the revenue at all ? I agree with the argu- 



( 448 ) 

ment of the Senator from Georgia, that there is no necessity for it ,' bnt 
if you do increase it, begin with the free list. We are threatened with 
an extra session unless something is done. jSTow, for one. I am willing 
to keep the Treasury notes outstanding, but if the question comes 
whetlier we shall vote higher duties upon those articles now paying more 
than twenty per cent., it shall not have my vote as long as I am in the 
Senate, even at the hazard of an extra session. It will be very incon- 
venient to me, as to everybody else, to have one; but if it is narrowed 
down to that issue; if there be a combination of gentlemen on the other 
side who are opposed in policy to me on this question, and who want to 
get an increase of duties, with a few members of the Democratic party, 
to force an issue of that sort, let it come. What is the attitude we shall 
stand in ? The Democratic party will stand upon the principle of redu- 
cing the expenditures and keeping down tlie taxes. If gentlemen on 
tlie other side choose to adopt the other line, and sa_y they go in for 
higher taxes, and, therefore, large expenditures, very well ; for you know, 
and everybody knows, that these large expenditures have grown out of 
a surplus. 

It was just so in 1887. We had a large surplus then, and the Gov- 
ernment got to spending too much money. Hard times came on, and 
Mr. Tyler went through his administration of four years, according to 
my recollection, with only $22,000,000 a year, on an average. We have 
had another surplus for a few years, and expenditures liave increased. 
They commenced in Mr. Fillmore's administration. There was then a 
surplus. They grew rapidly. They have continued since, I am not 
going to inquire who is most to blame ; but I say, without fear of con- 
tradiction, that any man who will examine the Journals fairly, w^ill find 
that the major part of the expenditures, which in my judgment are use- 
less, have been sustained by the votes of the Opposition — such as the 
land grants, payments for custom-house buildings, and improvements in 
the interior. There may be exceptions ; but it will generally turn out 
that they vote in a body for an increase of expenditure. It is true, after 
they put these things in the appropriation bills, they sometimes draw 
back, allow them to be defeated, and oblige the Democrats to come in 
and put them through ; but wdien you come to look into the Globe, and 
scrutinize a little closer, it will be found that these gentlemen, as a body, 
go for expenditures ; and why ? 

I remember conversing with a prominent member from New York, 
some years ago, about the homestead proposition. I expressed some 
objection to it. " Now," said he, " I have a reason for going for it, that 
will not bear on you." " What is it?" I asked, " Why, we are getting 
$3,000,000 a year from the public lands, and I want to stop that, so that 
we can increase the tariff; that is what I am driving at." You hear 
that said very frequently ; I have heard it twenty times during the last 
few years ; and the actions of these gentlemen speak louder than their 
words. They struggle to have large expenditures as an excuse to keep 
Up the taxes. As was well said by my trend from Georgia, they think 
taxation a great blessing. It is a blessing no doubt to the manufacturer, 
who obtains the advantage of it, and to a few men in his locality ; but it 
is, in my judgment, a great curse to the country. If the issue is to be 
made on low taxes, and thereby small expenditures, (for we can reduce 



(449) 

tlie expenditures if there is no surplus of money,) or high taxes and large 
expenditures, I am perfectly willing to meet gentlemen on it. 

I have endeav'ored, Mr. President, to show that, as the tariff has been 
high, productions have been low in price, and the reverse, running 
through a period of thirty-eight years ; but that, even if you adopt the 
consumer theory, this tax is a burden on all parts of the country, while 
the benefit goes to the manufacturer; that manufactures are flourishing 
and prosperous ; that all those that can support themselves are doing 
well ; and, if there is any branch of industry that cannot sup])ort itself 
without the aid of taxes on other interests, let it go down ; tliat during 
the continuance of the existing system our specie has accumulated until 
we have four times as much as we had only twelve years ago ; that our 
commerce, tonnage and evei'ything else, is increasing at enormous rates ; 
that manufacturing establishments are doing well ; and that, in my 
judgment, there is no need of any further increase of the taxes; audi 
mean, by my vote, to resist it as long as I can. 



[The manner in which the Kansas difficulties had been treated by the administra 
tion of Mr. Buchanan had in all respects been most unfortunate, and had upon the 
whole greatly aided the purposes of the anti-slavery agitators. In the first instance 
it will be remembered that the President sent Robert J. Walker there with certain 
instructions, which, taken in connection with the speeches made by him to induce 
the people there to make Kansas a free State, caused great complaint, especially in 
the South. It was said with much truth that if Congress was not by its laws to 
interfere with the right of the people to settle the question for themselves, it was 
still more objectionable for the executive to interfere to control the action of the 
citizens there. 

So decided were the remonstrances, and so evident did it become that Mr. 
Buchanan had made a mistake, that his action was suddenly reversed, and he imme- 
diately exerted himself to produce a diflferent result. The truth of the old adage 
that two wrongs will not make a right was never more clearly made manifest. The 
action of the President had greatly complicated matters there, and the attempts made 
in Congress to sustain his course tended to divide and weaken the Democratic party, 
and at the same time in the North generally, greatly strengthened the anti-slavery 
party. Many of the Northern Democratic, seeing that they must as a party go under 
in that section, if they attempted to follow Mr. Buchanan's new lead, took ground 
against it. Mr. Douglas was especially prominent in assailing the President's 
Lecompton policy. The breach between them gradually became wider, and seemed 
likely, if it did not disturb the unity of the party, at least to give its adversaries the 
advantage. Outside of the influence which Mr. Buchanan's official patronage gave 
him in the North, the majority of the Democrats there rather sympathized with Mr. 
Douglas. In the South the contrary was the case, and it seemed to be Mr. Buchan- 
an's purpose to drive Mr. Douglass as far as possible, and, in fact, out of the party, if 
he could do so. Several of Mr. Douglas' speeches, on the other hand, were of such 
a character as to weaken, greatly his hold on his former frien<l8 in the South. Indeed, 

57 



(450) 

his enemies charged that his wish was to divide the party, and become, as Fremont 
had been made, the candidate of the so-called Republican party. Though for the 
time both Mr. Buchanan and Douglas seemed anxious to aggravate the contest, yet 
the great body of the Democracy, both North and South, were desirous of closing 
the breach, so that the National Democracy might present an united front to the 
common enemy. 

Hoping that this might be eflfected, a few days after the exciting debate of Feb- 
ruary 23d, 1859, in the Senate, I had a conversation with Mr. Douglas. I stated ^to 
him that while he well knew that I, in common with most of the Southern Demo- 
crats differed with him. General Cass, and most of the Northern Democrats as to the 
construction of the non-intervention policy, that we had all, nevertheless, agreed on 
a general line of action in the conventions which nominated Pierce and Buchanan ; 
and that the question was not then a practical one, and in fact a dead issue. I said to 
him in as decided language as I could command, that nevertheless, by discussing the 
question, he could keep it alive, and give Mr. Buchanan the advantage against him ; 
that Mr. Buchanan's official patronage gave him great influence over the press, &c. 
1 told him that while we in the South generally did not agree with his views any 
more than we did with Buchanan's first Kansas policy, yet we were generally willing 
to ignore the difference of opnion, and stand on the old platform as against our 
common adversary. 

To illustrate my views I presented this case to him : " When you were a candidate 
for Congress, you were supported by the members of all the different religious 
churches who agreed with you in politics ; but suppose you had daily in your speeches 
insi&ted tliat all the churches were in the wrong except one of them, for example the 
Baptist, and that everybody would go to perdition unless he joined that church ; 
you would thus, by making such an issue, have driven ofi Presbyterians, Methodists 
and others from you; so now by pressing this territorial question, you will not change 
the opinions of the Southern people and some in the North, but you can drive them 
further from you, and enable your enemy to triumph over you." He seemed struck 
with the views I presented to him, and declared that he would let the question rest. 

It was not without surprise, that in the summer, while in Europe, I saw that he 
had re-opened the controversy, by having an article published in IIarper''s Magazine. 
The wisdom of Job's prayer that his enemy might write a book was never, perhaps, 
made more manifest. He thus had given his adversaries just such an opportunity as 
they needed. Mr. Douglas, though a most powerful debater, was a weak writer. 
Unfortunately for him, too, he fell into the hands of Judge Black, the ablest con- 
troversial writer of the day. 

On my return to North Carolina in November, at Raleigh, I had a conversation 
with Governor Ellis and Mr. Holden, then editor of the Standard, (who afterwards 
became Governor). They said, "We attempted to follow your advice and prepare 
the State to support Douglas, if it should become advisable, but he has placed 
himself in a position where it is impossible to sustain him." I told them that at any 
rate we must endeavor to harmonise the party for common defense against the Black 
Republican organization. 

Some additional circumstances tended to weaken Mr. Douglas. General Frank 
Blair and others made statements tending to show that Mr. Douglas had been 
willing to become the candidate of the Republicans. An impression existed in the 
minds of many that while such a movement had been favored by Mr. Greely and a 



( 451 ) 

number of the pai'ty, that Mr. Seward and others had resisted and defeated the pro* 
ject. Mr. Douglas' failure to contradict the positive statements of Frank Blair 
created doubt in many minds. Under all the circumstances, nevertheless, I pre- 
ferred that if it were practicable to do so, that Mr. Douglas should be made our can- 
didate for two reasons. In the first place, he had the most positive strength in the 
North, and his position on the territorial question might tend greatly to secure the 
doubtful votes of such persons, as from their conservative feeling were hesitating to 
join the Abolitionists. Secondly, from Mr. Douglas' impetuous temperament and 
his location in the northwest, he would not only, if defeated, have gone with us, 
but also he might have either carried some of those States to us in the South, or at 
least, in the event of a collision, have divided them. 

It will be remembered tliat a number of prominent anti-slavery men had hired a 
ruffian, John Brown by name, to collect a band of desperadoes, and in the night 
time to enter Virginia at Harper's Ferry, murder some citizens, occupy some houses, 
and attempt to excite an insurrection among the negroes. And yet a crime like 
this, so unprovoked, so deliljerate and so atrocious, instead of creating a feeling of 
universal indignation even in the North, had, in fact, rendered the perpetrator a 
hero, and greatly strengthened the Abolition party there. This fact alone, showing 
as it did that the feeling in the North was so strong against the South that any 
crime committed against our section vvas applauded there, it would seem, ought to 
have united the whole South for its common defense. 

In the hope that by fairly presenting the issue as it then stood, and holding up the 
danger that seemed to stare us directly in the face, and unite the Democracy of the 
North and South, on the 23d of January, 1860, the following speech was made:] 

SPEECH 

AGAINST THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT OF THE ANTI- 
hLAVERY PARTY, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE 
UNITED STATES, JANUARY 16, 1860. 

Mr. Clingman said: 

Mr. President: It is my purpose to speak to-day of the condition 
of the country, as connected with agitation of the slavery question. I 
shall do this with perfect frankness, and with no reserve, except what 
parliamentary rules and Senatorial courtesies impose. By such a course 
only can the real nature of the impending evil be ascertained and a 
remedy suggested. Having carefully studied the subject during the 
greater part of my political life, and from different points of view, I 
intend to express my opinions seriously, and as fully as the occasion 
seems to require. 

Before speaking directly to the merits of the subject, I shall devote a 
few minutes to a preliminary question. It has been contended that 
the Democratic party is responsible for the anti-slavery agitation of the 
North. A retrospect into the past will vindicate it most triumphantly 



(452) 

from the charge. The course of the old Federal party, iu the war of 
1812, had brought it into discredit and disgrace with the American 
people. Its leaders, with a view of recovering the popular favor, and 
through it the control of the government, seized upon the occasion of 
the application of Missouri for admission into the Union, and, by 
a[)pealing to the anti-slavery feeling of the Northern States, created a 
sectional party powerful enough to prevent, for a time, the admission 
of the State. During the struggle, a provision was adopted that slavery 
should never exist in the territory west of Missouri and north of the 
line of latitude of 36° 30'. Though this arrangement was distatefol to 
the South, and by many regarded as dishonorable and unconstitutional, 
it was acquiesced in for the sake of peace. And when, in 1845, Texas 
was annexed to the Union, by the Democratic party mainly, this Mis- 
souri line was extended through it, and slavery, which legally existed 
in every part of that State, was abolished and prohibited north of the 
line. 

When, subsequently, territory was acquired from Mexico, the Dem- 
ocratic party, with but few exceptions, attempted to apply the same 
principles to it, and extend the line of 36° 30' through it. The pro- 
position was again and again brought forward by the distinguished 
Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) and others, and as often rejected by 
the combined votes of the entire Whig party of the North, and a por- 
tion of the Democrats of that section. After years of fruitless struggle 
it was abandoned, and the principle of congressional non-intervention 
adopted by the compromise measures of 1850. 

In otiier words, it was then established, in substance and effect, that 
the people of the Territories, free from all congressional legislation on 
the subject of slavery, should regulate it for themselves, subject only to 
the limitations of the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted 
by the courts of the country. This settlement, like the proposition for 
the extension of the Missouri line, was resisted by the great bod}'' of 
the Northern Whigs, who were for the Wilmot proviso and against the 
extension of slavery in any mode. It was also opposed by the South- 
ern friends of the Missouri line, who preferred that S3'stem to congres- 
sional non-intervention, and who still cherished the hope that it might 
be adopted. In the final struggle, they were reduced to a dozen South- 
ern Senators and thirty Representatives, of whom I was one. 

I call the attention of Senators to another striking fact in this con- 
nection. It is charged not only by the Northern opposition, but also 
by the Southern opponents of the Democratic party, that it is respon- 



( 453 ) 

sible for the alleged evils of congressional non-intervention and the 
disturbances of so-called ^^ squatter sovereignty^'' in the Territories. I 
affirm that, in 1850, when this system was adopted, it was sustained 
by the representatives of the Southern Whigs with the greatest unan- 
imity. I was no exception to this remark, for I had announced already 
my separation from the organization of the Whig party. I repeat 
that the Southern opposition of that day, under the lead of Mr. Clay, 
were the first portion of their fellow-citizens to abandon the Missouri 
line and support the principles of non-intervention by Congress. On 
the other hand, the last and the firmest friends of the Missouri line 
were those represented in the Nashville Convention — whose nltmiatum, 
it was — and such Senators and Representatives from the South as were 
in that day denounced as tdtras and fire-eaters, because of their not 
adopting the principle of congressional non-intervention in lieu of the 
Missouri line. W^hen these facts are remembered, will the present 
Southern opposition, and its organs continue to assail tlie Democratic 
party for an act which they themselves earnestly and unitedly con- 
curred in? Can theyiakQ the ground that it was right to abolish the 
Missouri line, in order that free States should be made south of it, but 
that it should not, in like manner, be obliterated to place the South on 
an equal footing north of it? After a majorit}^, both of the South and 
of the Democratic party, liad adopted the principle of congressional 
non-intervention, we who had opposed it acquiesced, and the Demo- 
cratic and Whig conventions of 1852 both sanctioned it. 

When the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska were admitted, the 
Democratic party applied the same principle to them ; and, in so 
doing, found it necessary to repeal the old Missouri restriction, in 
order that there might be no intervention hy Congress io control in any 
way the inhabitants of those Territories. Were they not committed to 
do this, in the strongest and most emphatic terms, by their platform 
and their late action as to the Mexican territories, while the Whig or 
Opposition convention had professed, in its platform, to have acquiesced 
in the same principles? But it is said that both parties had declared 
themselves opposed to a further agitation of the slavery question. So 
they had; but there was a speeifijC ]j)ledge \\\ favor of congressional 
non-intervention in the Territories; and the carrying it out ought to 
have produced no opposition whatever, and would not, in a healthy 
state of public opinion in the North. The Democratic party could not 
honorably avoid doing what it did ; and would have been liable to 
the charge, had it failed to do this, of shifting its principles from time 



( 454 ) 

to time, and so shaping its course as to favor non-intervention when 
it would thereby admit free States into the Union, and of going for 
congressional intervention.^ on the other hand, when it might thereby 
prevent the formation of a slaveholding State. Had it failed to main- 
tain its principles on this occasion, it would have been justly exposed 
to this charge. Their opponents in the North, however, on the repeal 
of the Missouri restriction, raised, at once, an immense clamor, show- 
ing that their friendship for non-invention was only pretended, and 
that they had acquiesced in the measures of 1850 only because they 
created a free State south of 36° 30\ and did not intend the principles 
to be applied in a case in which, by any possibility, the South might 
carry its institutions north of this line. We all know that, prior to 
1854, they as regularly and vehemently denounced the Missouri com- 
promise as thc}^ have since done the Kansas inlqulti/ ; but as soon as 
it was proposed to repeal this restriction to carry out the principle of 
congressional non-intervention, they suddenly became the warm advo- 
cates of this same Missouri line, and deplored its removal. From the 
first to the last, they showed themselves to be Free-Soilers, and deter- 
mined to exclude the South from all share in the public territory of 
the Union. While the Kansas bill was pending, they threatened to 
hire men to occupy that Territory ; and did, in fact, send bodies of 
armed ruffians to hold it by force, constituting, as the Senator from 
Illinois (Mr. Douglas) said, a military occupation. This movement 
provoked retaliation ; and the strife thus occasioned was referred to 
by them as evidence against the policy of non-intervention. By the 
same effort on their part, they could have created disorders in any 
State of the Union, and might, with as much justice, have attempted 
to discredit tlie principle of State sovereignty. In fact, they refer to 
the late invasion of the State of Virginia, by some of their employees, 
as an argument against the state of society prevailing in the South. 

It is undoubtedtly true, however, that in consequence of the repeal 
of the Missouri restriction, true and patriotic men were defeated at the 
North by Free-Soilers and Abolitionists. When the Democratic party 
had the manliness and the statesmanship to reform the currency sys- 
tem in part by the adoption of the sub-treasur}' plan, it sustained 
severe losses for a time. In the more arduous undertaking of placing 
the slavery question on a permanent and solid basis, with reference to 
the action of the Federal government, it has had to encounter, per- 
haps, greater difficulties. I am not sure, however, that it would have 
been as much weakened, but for accidental circumstances which it 



(455) 

could not foresee. During the excitement arising out of the repeal of 
the Missouri restriction, there occurred that singular organization 
called the American i)arty, which carried a majority of almost every 
one of the Northern States. It severed, during this period of excite- 
ment, and permanently separated from the Democratic party, many 
who would otherwise have returned to it. On its sudden collapse, 
most of its members in the free States united with a few outside Abo- 
litionists and formed the present Black Republican party. But for 
these occurrences, I have no doubt that the Democratic party would 
have, ere this, recovered its ascendancy in several of the Northern 
States. 

But again, Mr. President, when, in the year 1867, Eobert J. Walker 
was made Governor of Kansas, he publicly declared that the climate 
of that Territory fitted it only to be a free State; and also assured the 
people that the whole Constitution should be submitted to them. This 
position was condemned generally, in the South, as amounting to 
executive interference, or intervention with the right of the citizens 
of the Territory to decide these questions for themselves. B}- wa}' of 
defence for Governor Walker, it was said that a number of Southern 
men had expressed the opinion that it would be a free State. Every 
one saw, however, tliat if Governor Walker had taken the other side, 
die might, with even more plausibility, have declared that Kansas 
ought to be a slave-holding State, because it was on the same parallel 
of latitude with Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, 
all of which were slave-holding States; and this position of his might 
have been fortified by any number of declarations of prominent Free- 
soilers and Abolitionists, to the effect that, under the Kansas act, that 
Territory would inevitably be a slave-holding State. The entire South, 
almost, condemned his position as being unfair, and an unjust exer- 
cise of executive influence in the Territory. It so happened, however, 
that, for months, the paper at the seat of government, and others sup- 
posed to represent the views of the President, sustained in the strongest 
and most emphatic terms, the position of Governor Walker. Almost the 
entire Democracy of the free States, therefore, took this ground in sup- 
port of what they understood to be the views of the administration, 
and assured their fellow-citizens that the people of Kansas were to 
have the privilege of voting on the whole Constitution of the State. 

But, toward the close of that year, the Convention of the Territory 
decided to submit only the slavery clause to the voters generally. The 
President, therefore, recommended the admission of the State under 



(456) 

the Constitution so adopted. That this recommendation of his was 
right, I never doubted; because I think it has been fully settled by the 
usagoe of the States, that their conventions may submit or not, as they 
choose, either the whole or a part of their constitutions to a vote of 
the people. Nevertheless, this position being inconsistent with that 
which had been so generally taken in the North, many men who 
zealously sustained it, were afterwards defeated at home, because of their 
party having been previously committed to a different line of policy. 
I know that many Southern men who had no doubt that tiie action of 
the Kansas Convention was theoretically, and as a matter of constitu- 
tional law, right, nevertheless regretted that action, because it had the 
appearance of seeking to avoid an opportunity for a fair expression of 
the popular will. While we held that Congress had no right to in- 
terfere with the action of the Territory in this respect, yet we felt that 
the issue was one which was injuring our friends in the North, and 
could not possibly benefit us. If there ever had been any chance of 
its becoming a slave State in fact, the course of Governor Walker had 
already cut that off by carrying over all the officials and their influence 
in the Territory to the side of the free State party. With no purpose 
to cast censure on any one, I nevertheless frankly refer to this as a 
circumstance for which the Democratic party, as a whole, are not 
justly responsible, but which aided the anti-slavery party, as at present 
organized. On a survey of the entire ground, I maintain that it will 
appear that the action of the Democratic party for the last fifteen 
years on the slavery question, has been wise, patriotic and states- 
manlike. 

I proceed, however, to the consideration of the great question, before 
the country. Immediately after the presidential election in 1856, I 
met the veteran Secretary of State, then a Senator from Michigan, on 
the floor of the Senate, and in reply to an inquiry as to how he was, 
he answered: "Well in health, but depressed in spirits. Sir," said he, 
"I formerly thought the Union would never be dissolved; but I am 
now not without painful apprehensions of a different result. They 
say that the excitement in the North has grown out of the Kansas 
bill. A hundred Kansas bills would not have produced this result. 
These people mean to abolish slavery in j^our section. You ma}' think 
that they are not fanatics; but the misfortune is that they are are. 
You will gain nothing by making to them concessions; you cannot 
thereby help us; but you will ruin yourselves. By standing firm, you 
can at least protect yourselves." 



(457) 

His words made the deeper impression upon me, because they were 
in accordance with my own settled convictions. But now the evil has 
attained such alarming dimensions that it demands consideration. 
AVhen a dark and rapidly advancing cloud has already covered half 
the heavens, and the mutterings of the distant thunder, and the wail- 
ings of the coming storm are loudly heard, none but a false sentinel 
will proclaim a calm. Eminently futile, too, and mischievous, are 
declarations of Southern men against agitation and in favor of union 
and harmony. When a man is threatened with violence, will he stay 
the hand of the assailant by proclaiming his love of peace? When a 
country is invaded by a public enemy, can the inhabitants protect 
themselves by passing resolutions in favor of peace and harmony? 
All the world regards such things as evidence of weakness or cow- 
ardice, and as only calculated to stimulate the invaders. When Philip 
of Macedon was threatening Greece, his hired partizans recommended 
repose and quiet, and denounced Demosthenes as a political agitator. 
It was in the midst of men who were crying out " peace! peace!" that 
Patrick Henry thundered that there was "no peace!" If the Abo- 
litionists in the North could be induced to abandon agitation on the 
subject of slavery, it would be well; but they reject with derision the 
suggestion, and become only more insolent as Southern men cry out 
the louder for quiet and union. 

When, some twenty-five years ago, the Abolition society at Boston, 
under the lead and guidance of a British subject, attracted public 
attention, though it declared that its purposes were merely peaceful, 
and intended to persuade men to liberate the slaves, yet so insignifi- 
cant in numbers was it, that the candidate for Congress in that district 
refused to reply to its interrogatories, or to give any pledges as to his 
course on the subject of slavery. For this he was complimented by 
Harrison Gray Otis, who, nevertheless, said with prophetic sagacity: 

"And can you doubt, fcUow-citizens, that these associations will act 
together for political purposes'? Is it in human nature for such combinations 
to forbear? If, tlien, their numbers should be augmented, and the success 
they anticipate realized in making proselytes, liow soon might you see a ma- 
jority in Congress returned under the influence of the associations ? And 
how long afterwards would this Union last ?" 

Though few in numbers, the Abolitionists went resolutely and 
actively to work. 

There was a strong feeling in favor of liberty pervading the public 
mind generally, while its attention had never been called to the 
58 



( 458 ) 

specific differences — physical, mental, and moral — existing between 
the white man and the negro. The point of operations selected was 
one remote from negro slavery, where the people were ignorant of its 
actual features, and thus fitted more easily to be imposed upon. In 
that vicinity, too, were the remains of old prejudices against the 
Southern section of the Union. The effort of the Abolitionists was 
directed to the corrupting of knowledge at its fountain heads, by the 
diffusion of publications directed to that end. Its first fruits were seen 
in its influences on women, preachers, teachers, and professors, persons 
of lively sensibilities generally, not so much accustomed to deal with 
matters of fact, more easily deluded by cunningly divised sophisms, 
and more frequently acting from the influence of feelings. Soon abo- 
lition sentiments appeared in books of education; got possession of 
schools, colleges, and churches. As its powers increased, its efforts 
were multiplied, until it covered the land with its publications. Some 
twelve months ago, it was stated in the newspapers that one of the 
anti-slavery organizations had resolved to circulate, during the follow- 
ing year, in the State of New York, one million of its tracts. Can 
such an amount of printed matter as this, consisting as it does of 
ingeniously written misrepresentations and falsehoods, fail to produce 
some effect ? Remember that this is repeated from year to year, and 
aided by hired and voluntary lecturers, speakers, and preachers. 
Abolitionism to a great extent, pervades the literature of the free 
States. So strong is the feeling against slavery there, that the writers 
of novels and plays, to secure the public patronage, exercise their wits 
in imagining all that can be conceived as worst in human nature, and 
represent it as a true type of the state of society in the South. The 
bulk of the newspaper press, too, in the North is anti-slavery. Such 
is the character of the entire press of the dominant party there, and of 
a large portion of the neutral and religious papers ; while a part even 
of the minority, or Democratic press, avoids the subject as much as 
possible, instead of attempting to stem the current. Though Northern 
city papers are much read in the South, on the contrary, our papers 
have little or no circulation in the North. If they had, the efforts of 
the anti-slavery party would, to some extent, be counteracted. The 
cities of New York and Philadelphia, for example, are not abolition- 
ized; and this is attributed, by some, to the fact that they are engaged 
largely in Southern trade. But the mechanics of Massachusetts are 
just as much interested, and yet they are intensely anti-slavery in their 
feelings. The true solution, I think, will be found in the fact that 



( 459 ) 

these cities are the resort of so many Southerners; that our state of 
society is thereby better understood, and cannot be so successfully 
defamed. The same reason applies to the free States on the borders of 
the slave-holding country. It is not, as the Abolitionists allege, that 
their consciences are so much blunted that they cannot appreciate the 
evils of slavery; but simply because they do understand it, that they 
cannot be imposed upon by the falsehoods of the anti-slavery writers. 
In addition to this reason, the Western States have a large influx of 
Southern emigrants. While Vermont is intensely abolitionized, New 
Hampshire, adjoining it, is less so. This may be accounted for from 
the fact that New Hamphire was originally strongly Democratic, and 
its press resisted, therefore, to some extent, the statements of the Aboli- 
tionists. Had not New Hampshire been a small State and surrounded 
with adverse influences, she would probably not have been overpowered. 

The anti-slavery movement has gone on with increasing strength, 
until it has educated a large portion of the Northern people to enter- 
tain feelings of hostility to slavery and the Southern States. The move- 
ment has progressed independently of political occurrences, but it has 
occasionally been accelerated or retarded by them. For example: in 
1850 it was weakened somewhat, partly by the great discussion at that 
time, which enlightened partially the popular mind, and also by the 
peculiar character of the legislation of the period. California was 
admitted as a free State, with boundaries reaching far south of the 
Missouri line, and giving the North the majority in this body; while 
the principle of non-intervention applied to Utah and New Mexico was 
regarded as a fruitless abstraction, the general opinion prevailing that, 
to use the words of Mr. Webster, the law of God had excluded slavery 
from them. As to the fugitive slave law, it was seen that it could 
practically, like its predecessor, the act of 1793, be rendered a nullity 
by State action and individual resistance. It is a great mistake to sup- 
pose that the repeal of the Missouri restriction in 1854 produced the 
present anti-slavery organization. In 1847 and 1848 the House of 
Representatives, by large majorities, repeatedly passed the Wilmot pro- 
viso; and this was understood to have been done in accordaiice with 
the wishes of their constituents. Prior to 1850, most of the churches 
had been divided by this issue. 

From year to year the anti-slavery sentiment acquired more and 
more political influence; and in 1848 it took possession of the greater 
portion of the Whig party in the free States. No one was so influen- 
tial in effecting this result as the Senator from New York. In a speech 



(460) 

delivered during that year in Ohio, the object, in part, of wliicli was to 
induce the anti-slavery men to join the Whig party rather than the 
Buffalo- platform Free-Soilers, he uses such expressions as these. I call 
the attention of Senators particularly to them, because I shall have 
occasion to refer to them again presently : 

" The party of freedom seeks complete and universal emancipation." * * 
" Slavery is the sin of not some of the States only, but of them all; of not 
one nation only, but of all nations. It perverted and corrupted the moral 
sense of mankind deeply and universally, and this corruption became a uni- 
versal habit. Habits of thought become fixed principles. No American 
State has yet delivered itself entirely from these habits. We, in New 
York, are guilty of slavery still by withliolding the right of suffrage from the 
race we liave emancipated. You, in Ohio, are guilty in the same way by a 
system of black laws still more aristocratic and odious. It is written in the 
Constitution of the United States that five slaves shall count equal to three 
freemen as a basis of representation ; and it is written also, in violation of 
Divine law, that we shall surrender the fugitive slave who takes refuge at our 
fireside from his relentless pursuer. You blush not at these things, because 
they have become as familiar as household words; and your pretended Free- 
Soil allies claim peculiar merit for maintaining these miscalled guai'antees of 
slavery which they find in the national compact. Does not all this prove 
that the Whig party have kept up with the spirit of the age ? that it is as true 
and faithful to human freedom as the inert conscience of the American people 
will permit it to be? What, then, you say, can nothing be done for freedom 
because the public conscience remains inert ? Yes, irwich can be done, every- 
thing can be done. Slavery can be limited to its present bounds. It can be 
ameliorated. It can be, and must be abolished, and you and I can and must do 
it. The task is simple and easy, as its consummalion will be beneficent and its 
rew^ards glorious. It requires only to follow tliis simple rule of action: To do 
everywhere and on every occasion what we can, and not to neglect or refuse 
to do what we can at any time, because at that precise time and on that pai'- 
ticular occasion we cannot do more. 

" Circumstances determine possibilities." ***** 
"But we must begin deeper and lower than the composition and combina- 
tions of factions or parties, wherein the strength and security of slavery lie. 
You answer that it lies in the Constitution of the United Stales and the con- 
stitutions and laws of slaveholding States. Not at all. It is in the p.rroneous 
sentiment of the American people. Constitutions and laws can no more rise 
above the virtue of the people than the limpid stream can climb above the 
native spring. Inculcate the love of freedom and the equal lights of man 
under the paternal roof; see to it that they are taught in the schools and in 
the churches ; reform your own code; extend a cordial welcome to the fugi- 
tive who lays his weary limbs at your door, and defend him as you would 
your paternal gods; correct your own error, that slavery has any constitu- 
tional guarantee which may not be released, and ought not to be relin- 
quished." 

*** ****** 

" Whenever the public mhid shall wUl the abolition of slavery, the way 
will open for it. 

" I know that you will tell me this is all too slow. Well, then, go faster if 
you can, and I will go with you ; but, remember the instructive lesson that 
was taught in the words, ' these things ought ye to have done, and not to 
have left the others undone.' '' 



( 461 ) 

Such efforts as this tvere persevered in from time to time. In 1850 
he made that speech in which he proclaimed that there was a "higher 
law" than tlie Constitution, for which he received the emphatic denun- 
ciation of Mr. Clay. His subsequent efforts have been in this same 
line; and at Rochester more recently he endeavored to render the 
slaveholders of the South as odious as possible, and declared that there 
was an "irrepressible conflict" between the free and the slaveholding 
States. To stimulate the Northern people to attack us, he affirmed 
that unless they abolished slavery throughout the entire South, we 
would extend slavery over all the Northern States. In substance, he 
says, to protect themselves they must destroy our social and political 
system. When a man says that there is an irrepressible conflict 
between him and me, and that my head or his must fall, he proclaims 
himself my deadliest enemy. It avails nothing if he even adds that he 
intends to act quietly and legally, but that my head must fall to save 
his own. In the present instance, the Senator says that it is for the 
South to decide whether its system of society shall be destrojxd peace- 
ably or by " violeAiee.''^ He is benevolent enough to say, that if we will 
submit, the work shall be done for us quietly and peaceably. By his 
efforts and those of otliers, the bulk of the old Whig party was aboli- 
tionized, and its members, with the aid of accessions from the Demo- 
cratic ranks and Abolition societies, have constituted that political 
organization which to-day threatens the existence of the Republic. It 
claims for itself the name of Republican party, and by its opponents is 
designated as the Black Republican party. The latter designation is 
proper to distinguish it from the old Republican party, whose "image 
and superscription" it seeks to counterfeit; and also because its efforts 
are entirel}' directed to advance the black or negro race. 

What are the principles of this party, as indicated by its declarations 
and its acts? It has but a single principle, and that is hostility to 
negro slavery in the United States. Some of its members have called 
it a party for human freedom ; but this is a mistake ; for though there 
are in the state of slavery in different parts of the world, men of all 
races, yet it has manifested no sympathy for any but the negro; and 
even to negro slavery, it seems indifferent outside of the United States. 
I maintain that it has no principle whatever, but hostility to negro 
slavery in the United States. A man might be for or against the tariff, 
the bank, the land distribution, or internal improvements; he might 
be a Protestant or Catholic, a Christian or infidel ; but if he was only 
actuated by an intense feeling of hostility to negro slavery, or, as that 



'(462) 

is interwoven with the social system of the South, if it were only known 
that he was anxious that the Federal government should exercise all 
its powers for the destruction of the Southern States, that man would 
have been accepted as a good member of the Black Republican party. 

But while all the members of the party are actuated by this princi- 
ple or feeling, they differ as to the particular steps or measures to be 
taken. The most moderate of them say they are merely opposed to 
the extension of slavery, and, therefore, they are for prohibiting it in 
the Territories, and opposed to the admission of any other slaveholding 
States. The Senator from Vermont (Mr. Collamer) said not long since 
that this was his position, that he was for confining slavery to its pres- 
ent limits, so that in time it might cease to be profitable, and in that 
way be extinguished. As this position is taken by many men who 
claim to be moderate and conservative in their views, let us examine 
it for a few moments. They say that if slavery be confined to its pres- 
limits, the slaves will increase in numbers to that extent that slave 
labor will in time be so abundant that the supply will exceed the 
demand; and that the owners will, from choice, set them free rather 
than be at the expense of maintaining them for their labor. Let it be 
assumed for illustration that it costs ten cents to feed and clothe a 
slave; then if, owing to the great number of slaves who exist in the 
Territory, their labor would be worth less than ten cents per day, 
undoubtedly it would be an advantage for the owners to liberate them. 
But remember that when the labor of a negro should be worth only 
ten cents, that of the white man would likewise come down to this 
price. The result, therefore, is that population is to be crowded in the 
South to that extent that every laborer is to be reduced to the starving 
point, as it was in Ireland during the times of the famine. Now, I 
would ask the Senator from Vermont this question in all candor: if 
a system was proposed to be instituted by which his constituents were 
to be reduced to the starving point, and thus crushed, would he coun- 
sel them to await such a result? or would he not advise them to stand 
FROM UNDER before they were destroyed? As there are already four 
million slaves in the South, when their numbers are increased many 
times, no one will pretend that they ever would be removed. The 
plan is to keep the negroes and such whites as are compelled to stay 
among them down at the starving point for all time. And this is the 
policy of the most moderate and conservative of the Black Republican 
party. 

There are others of them who say, that in addition to this the fugi- 
tive slave law must be repealed; slavery abolished in the District of 



(463) 

Columbia, the forts and arsenals, and wherever the United States has 
exclusive jurisdiction. Others of them contend likewise that the slave 
trade between the States must be abolished, and also the coastwise trade 
between the States. Other classes insist, too, that slavery should be 
attacked in the States themselves. The largest number of the party, 
however, stand on the same ground of the Senator from New York, 
(Mr. Seward.) He says that slavery has no " constitutional guarantee " 
which may not be released and ought not to be relinquished ; that 
" circumstances determine possibilities ;" that they must stand ready 
" to do everything when and on every occasion that we can ;" and 
that "whenever the public mind shall will the abolition of slavery, 
the way will be open for it;" that "it can be and must be abolished, 
and you and I can and must do it." More recently he said : 

"The interest of the white race demands the ultimate emancipation of all 
men. Whether that consummation shall be allowed to take etTect, with need- 
ful and wise precautions against sudden change and disaster, or be hurried 
on by violence; is all that remains for you to decide." 

He also declares that he will go with those who can show him the 
fastest road to effect the object. Such is the governing principle and 
spirit of the party, to use all the |)Ower they have, or can by any pos- 
sibility acquire, for the abolition of slavery. 

When we look to the acts of this party, in what attitude is it pre- 
sented? It has made the whole newspaper press subject to its control 
intensely hostile to the Southern section of the Union. Such is the 
power of the public press that it was able to keep England and France 
for centuries in a state of hatred and war with each other. Only a 
few weeks since, to i)revent a collision between the two countries, the 
Emperor of France publicly checked the press of his own country ; 
and yet the fiercest articles in the French journals v/ere moderate in 
comparison with the general tone of the anti-slavery press towards the 
South. 

This party, too, sends up representatives to the two Houses of Con- 
gress from time to time, who, neglecting all the public business of the 
country, devote themselves to preparing and reciting denunciatory 
harangues against the Southern States. Some years ago, an intelli- 
gent foreigner, who happened to hear one of these tirades in this body, 
expressed his astonishment at the quiet manner in which it was lis- 
tened to by southern Senators. He declared that if, when a European 
congress had met for business purposes, a similar course had been 
taken, the congress would at once have been broken up. In our State 



(464) 

Legislatures, such tilings, if they occur, are soon stopped by personal 
collisions. In Congress, out of deference to sectional feelings, there is 
no attempt to check such men as choose to embark in the trade of 
heaping all manner of obloquy on our constituents. 

This anti-slavery party has torn to pieces most of the great Chris- 
tian associations of the country ; in spite of all the resistance which 
the esj}rit du coi'j.>s and Christian charity prevailing among them could 
present. It has stricken down every public man in the North within 
its reach who has shown a willingness to administer the Constitution 
fairly in relation to slavery. 

Whenever it has obtained the control of the Legislatures, it has 
caused them to pass the most stringent acts for the nullification of 
that clause of the Constitution which provides for the return of fugi- 
tive slaves. When many years ago the State of South Carolina threat- 
ened to nullify a law of Congress, the whole Union was thrown into 
a state of the greatest excitement; but so common have these proceed- 
ings become in the free States, that they now scarcely excite a remark 
when passed. 

This party, too, has organized societies, and hired agents to steal 
and carry away slaves from the Southern States; and when a gang of 
twenty or more is taken off at a time, it is made a matter of public 
rejoicing; and their papers boast of the perfection of the underground 
railroads, and of the millions of dollars' worth of property that they 
have taken from the South. 

The Federal system, instead of giving us protection, oul}^ affords 
our enemies immunities and facilities for attack. Instead of being 
a shield, the Union has been converted into a sword to stab us the 
more deeply. 

It is idle for Senators to say that a majority' of the people in their 
States are not in favor of these unlawful proceedings, if only one 
man out of every hundred should be a thief, and the other ninety-nine 
should not restrain them, by legislation or otherwise, this minority 
of thieves would be able to steal all the property in the community. 
If societies were formed in Massachusetts to steal property in Connec- 
ticut or New York, the Legislature and people of the State would 
doubtless take steps to restrain them. Tliis is done even with refer- 
ence to foreign countries, to prevent war between them. American 
citizens are punished for goingin to Canada to disturb that British com- 
munity. 

If societies were formed in Canada for a similar purpose, and were, 
in fact, to steal an equal amount of property from New England, New 



( 465) 

York, Ohio, and otlier Nortliern States, to what is carried away by the 
Abolitionists from the South, we should be involved in a war with 
Great Britain in less than six months. What would be the feeling of 
those border States, if Canadian orators should boast that their socie- 
ties liad robbed them of $45,000,000 worth of their property, just as 
they now say they hold that value of Southern runaway slaves? But 
men who combine to plunder the people of the Southern States, so far 
from being punished, are, in many of the free States, encouraged by 
the legislation there. 

During the last session, the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) 
introduced a proposition for additional legislation to prevent the for- 
eign or African slave trade to the United States. In 1808, Congress 
passed laws to prohibit that trade, and since that time, a period of 
more than fifty years, as far as I know or have reason to believe, tiie 
law has been violated but in a single instance. What other law on 
your statute-book has been so well kept? I repeat, what law has Con- 
gress ever passed, which there was a temptation to violate, that has 
been so well observed? That it was not broken often, is not owing to 
any want of opportunity. Northern, as well as foreign ships, have 
been engaged in the trade, and the extent of the Soutliern coast affords 
much greater facilities for the introduction of slaves than does the Island 
of Cuba, into which large numbers are annually carried. This law 
has not been broken, simply because the people of the South were not 
willing to violate it. Now, sir, let me state a case for the consideration 
of the Senate. Suppose, instead of what has actually occurred, the 
State of Georgia, where some negroes were landed, and a number of 
other Southern States, had [)assed the strongest laws which could be 
devised to defeat the act of Congrees forbidding the African slave trade, 
and encouraging that traffic by all the means in their power; sup})Ose, 
further, that Southern Senators, and other prominent public men, had, 
in their speeches, earnestly recommended the violation of the law of 
Congress, and that all through the South money was subscribed and 
associations formed to defeat the law, and })rovide facilities by railroad 
or otherwise for the introduction of Africans, and mobs were gotten up 
to overpower the United States marshals, could not a hundred negroes 
have been imported for every one that the Abolitionists have stolen ? 
Yes, with a shore-lino of more than ten thousand miles, millions 
might have been imported. 

This proceeding wouhl have been a violation of the laws of the 
United States, just like that which has occurred with reference to the 

59 



( 466 ) 

fugitive slave law. In the case supposed, however, the southern men 
would have had greatly the advantage on the score both of political 
economy and morality. They might have said, with truth, that the 
negroes imported from Africa added to the production and wealth of 
the United States, while those carried North by the Abolitionists were 
generally converted into idle vagrants. It might also have been said 
that African savages were, by being brought to the United States, par- 
tially civilized, and not only made more intelligent and moral, but 
also christianized in large numbers ; while the negroes carried to the 
North become so worthless and so vicious, that many of the States 
there were seeking to exclude them by legislation, as communities do 
the plague and other contagious disorders. And the Senator from 
New York, who has declared that it is a religious duty of the people 
of the North to violate the fugitive slave law, and urged them, instead 
of delivering up the runaway negroes, to protect and defend them as 
they do their paternal gods, stands up in the face of the American 
Senate and complains of violation of the laws against the African 
slave-trade! Was there ever such an exhibition ? I repeat, was the 
like ever seen since the creation of the world ? I may use strong lan- 
guage, but truth demands it. That Senator, too, has fully indorsed 
the incendiary and revolutionary doctrines of the Helper book, as a 
large majority of the members of his party in the House have done. 

Such, then, Mr. President, are the views of tliis party, as indicated 
alike by its declarations and its acts. Its members are moving on 
with an accelerated velocity. While the more moderate of them now 
occupy the ground of the Abolitionists twenty years ago, most of them 
are far in advance of that position. Ought we to stand still until all 
the States are as thoroughly abolitionized as Massachusetts now is? If 
not, what can be done to arrest the mischief? I propose, then, 
seriously, to consider this cjuestion. 

In my judgment there are two modes in which it can and ought to 
be met. The first is under the Constitution ; the second may be outside 
of it. 

If abolitionism be a popular delusion, can it not be dispelled by 
proper efforts? Truth can overcome error; but to enable it to do so it 
must be properly presented to the human mind. As the anti-slavery 
party have acquired their present ascendency by vigorous and widely 
extended efforts, if they ;ire to be overthrown, it is only by decided 
and persevering exertions on the other side. There are, in my opinion, 
sufficient conservative elements in the free States for this purpose, if 



(467) 

they can only be properly arrayed in opposition. It is necessary that 
the discussion should bo widely extended and also directed to the 
merits of the question involved. The constitutional argument is suffi- 
cient for the intelligent and honest; but if it be said, for example 
merely, that slavery, as existing in the Southern States, is a great 
wrong and great evil, yet that under the Constitution the people of the 
North have no right to interfere with it, the party so defending will 
in the end lose ground ; because masses of men, when excited by real 
or imaginary wrongs, will in time break over mere legal restraints 
which they regard as unjust and criminal. They hold that "where 
there is a will there is a way,'' and will find some mode of action. 
But in this case the real issue is, whether or not the negro is the equal 
of the white man physically, intellectually, and morally? Though 
usually evaded in the discussion, this is the real question which 
lies at the foundation of the controversy. If the people of the 
Northern States should regard the negro as being the equal of the 
white man, then they will continue to feel a sympathy for him in 
slavery, and can be excited to efforts for his liberation. If, on the con- 
trary, he be different in material respects from the white man, and also 
inferior, then his case must be decided on its own merits and not from 
any supposed analogy to that of the white man. It is not, as the Aboli- 
tionists in their silliness assert, a mere question of color or prejudice 
against a black skin. If the negro were-, in fact, in all other respects 
like the white man, his blackness would have been of no more con- 
sequence than the difference between black and red hair or light and 
dark eyes. The feeling against him grows out of the fact that he 
is in all respects different from the white man and inferior. When I 
put the question to any one that I may meet here, the chances are that 
he will at once agree with me in private conversation, and admit, in 
the language used sometime ago by the Senator from Illinois, (Mr. 
Trumbull) that Omnipotence has made a difference between the white 
man and the negro; and yet it is this very opposite view in favor of 
negro equality which gives its main force and vitality to the anti- 
slavery movement. When, sir, some twelve years ago, I, in discussion, 
threw out suggestions about the difference of races, I was denounced 
as one who attributed injustice to God Almighty in alleging that He 
had made the negroes inferior Will any Senator on the other side of 
this chamber tell me why it is that Providence brings half the children 
that are born in New England into the world with constitutions so 
feeble that they cannot live until they are twenty-one years of age? 



(468) 

Or will they, upon their views of His justice, explain why it is that, 
in the same family, one brother is provided with a good constitution 
and strong intellect, while a second has, from his birth, the seeds of 
debility and incurable disease, and a third is mentally imbecile or per- 
haps idiotic? Would the injustice to the feeble be greater if they 
were black men? Are we to refuse to believe the facts which nature 
constantly presents to us, because they do not harmonize with our 
ideas of the justice of the Creator? The Bible itself does not explain 
to us why it is that, while ten talents are given to one man, to another 
but a single talent is given. For the inequality of the negro, Provi- 
dence is responsible, as He is for the entire creation which surrounds 
us. When human laws are in accordance with the system of nature, 
they are wise; but if in opposition to it, they are jjroductive only of 
mischief. The question is significantly asked in the Scriptures, "Can 
the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?" The ancients 
expressed their opinions on this subject in the fable which represented 
a black man as having been killed in an effort to wash him white. 

There is no middle ground which can be maintained on this ques- 
tion. If the negro be your ec|ual, why do you exclude him from your 
parlors? If he be unequal, your whole argument has in fact lost its 
foundation and fails. If it once be admitted that the negro is inferior, 
then the entire edifice of Abolitionism falls to the ground, because it is 
intimately interwoven with, and owes its vitality to the opposite belief. 
When pressed boldly on this issue, the Abolitionists of late are trying 
to evade it. It is a singular and striking fact, that when this issue has 
been made in the free States directly, and discussed before the people, 
they have decided the point against the negro. Such was the case in 
Connecticut and New York on the question of suffrage, and also in the 
States of Illinois and Indiana on the proposition to exclude free negroes 
from those States. In the contest, too, in Illinois, in the year 1858, 
which re'^ulted in the triumph of the distinguished Senator from Illi- 
nois, (Mr. Douglas) this was the leading issue. Had that Senator con- 
tented himself with simply saying that slavery was an evil which 
his constituents had no constitutional right to interfere with, I do not 
believe he would have been successful. But he understood the ques- 
tion, went at once into the merits of it, and carried the war into the 
enemy's ranks. And his opponent early in the contest began to cower 
and shrink from his blows, and tried in vain to evade the issue. The 
American people understand the negro, and where a direct appeal is 
made to them they truly respond. Though the story of Dean Swift, in 



(469) 

which, ill a certain country, he represents the horse as being greatly 
superior to the man, is an ingenious one, yet it misleads nobody among 
us, because horses are so common that their qualities are understood. 
So the romances of the Abolitionists, in which the}^ represent the negro 
as being equal and even superior to the white man, deceive no one 
familiar with the negro. In southern Ohio, for example, where free 
negroes are quite common, there is little or no Abolitionism; while in 
the northern part, in which the negro is seldom seen, anti-slavery car- 
ries everything before it. European writers know little or nothing of 
the negro, and hence our professors, preachers, and other mere book- 
men of the North, are easily led astray by European and American 
Abolitionists; but the people of the country, who are accustomed to 
look at facts, are not so readily imposed on. A thorough investigation 
of the subject shows the negro to b.e inferior, and hence the principles 
which apply to white men cannot be extended to him. No farmer 
assumes that what is advantageous to the hog, for example, is necessa- 
rih^ so to the sheep. To determine, therefore, what is to be done with 
the negro, you must study the negro himself. Remember, I do not 
undertake to decide how or when the negro race became different from 
the white. Tliey may, as many men of science contend, have been 
created of different species, or they may have been rendered different 
since their creation, by an act of Providence. Some plausibly say, that 
inasmuch as we learn from the Scriptures that a certain race were 
condemned to be slaves through all time, the negro best fulfills this 
description, and hence take him as the representative of that class. 
Without attempting to decide who is right as to theory, I think it clear 
that the difference between the white race and the negro is as great as 
that between certain different species of animals of the same genus, that 
approximate each other in their structure and liabits. But it is said: 
Do you deny the manhood of the negro ? No more than I should deny 
the monkeyhood of an ape if I should say he is not a baboon, or the 
duckship of a mallard if I deny that he is a canvas-back duck. 

Instead of indulging in vague generalities about human liberty and 
the rights of man, examine the nature and condition of tiie negro him- 
self. Four thousand years ago, in the climate best suited to his con- 
stitution, he was a savage and a slave. In his own country he stands 
in the same category with ivory, dates, and other tropical productions 
If transferred, as merchandise, to a foreigner, he is usually benefited 
by escaping from a master who will eat him in times of scarcity to one 
who treats him with more lenity and often with kindness. Egypt was 



( 470 ) 

the seat of the earliest civilization known to man, and the Egyptians 
held the negro as a slave, but were not able to civilize his race; though 
subsequently in contact with the Carthagenians, Romans and Saracens, 
he still remained a savage and a slave. 

In the West Indies, and in other portions of America where they 
form independent communities, notwithstanding the advantages they 
had from the teachings of the white men, and their great powers of 
imitation, they seem to be returning to their original savage state. 
When we turn to the free negroes of the United States, what shall I 
say of them? Why, Northern as well as Southern men, and even 
Canadians, characterize them as the most worthless of the human race. 
Formerly the Abolitionists ascribed their degradation to the want of 
political and social privileges. But during the middle ages, in Europe, 
the Jews were not only without political privileges, but were, as a class, 
odious and severely persecuted, yet they were, nevertheless, intelligent, 
energetic and wealthy. In point of fact, in some portions of the North- 
ern States, the negro has been made a pet of, and but for his native 
inferiority, must have thriven and even become distinguished. On the 
other hand, it is an indisputable fact that the four million negroes who 
are held in slavery 'in the South, when their condition is considered 
with reference to their physical well-being and comfort, their produc- 
tiveness as laborers, their intelligence, morality and religion, stand 
superior to any other portion of their race. While the free nogroes in 
the North, with fresh accessions from abroad, diminish in numbers, 
the slaves of the South increase as rapidly as the white race, and, upon 
the whole, perhaps, adds a much to the wealth of the country in which 
they are located as any equal number of laborers in the world. 

What the Abolitionists have to do is to find, or create, a negro com- 
munity which is superior to that of the slaves of the South. When 
they shall have done this, they will have laid some grounds for their 
appeals in behalf of emancipation. Hitherto they have enlisted the 
sympathies and feelings of the North by falsely assuming that the 
negro and white man have in all respects the same nature. Let the 
inequality which the Creator has made be recognised, and their system 
falls to the ground. 

But the Abolitionists sometimes say that, even if it be true that the 
negro is inferior, for that reason, namely, on account of his weakness, 
he ought not to be enslaved. Does this reasoning apply to children? 
The average of human life is less than forty years, and how can you 
justify depriving human beings of liberty for more than half that time? 



(471) 

If children were the equals of adults, it would be wrong to control 
them. It is simply because they are inferior that we justify their sub- 
jection to the will of others. Upon these principles the negro, being, 
as compared with the white man, always a child, is benefited by the 
control to which he is subjected. 

When pressed on those points by an array of facts, the Abolitionists 
fall back on the opinions of Mr. Jefferson and others of the last cen- 
tury. But since their day the sciences have made a prodigious 
advance, and in all that relates to the peculiarities and distinctions 
that exist between the different races of men, there has been the great- 
est progress of any. In fact, it is a science which has almost grown 
up in our day, and it has made such strides as to have taken posses- 
sion of the intellect of America. Already there are hundreds who 
have adopted the doctrine to one who believed it ten years ago. It is 
only necessary for the true men to take it up boldly, and press it home, 
and the Abolitionists can be routed throughout the North. 

The shrewder anti-slavery men, however, seeing that they cannot 
make longer a successful fight for the negro, affirm that their objection 
to slavery is not on this account, but for the sake of the white men, 
and that they and the South are injured by the institution, and that 
our people are for that reason wanting in enterprise and industry. 
To that argument I have this to say in reply. Where, Mr. President, 
in all histor}' was it known that one nation was so strongly under the 
influence of benevolence, as to cause it to make war upon another 
merely to compel the nation attacked to become more enterprising and 
prosperous? Who has invaded Spain or Turkey to compel the Span- 
iards or Turks to become more industrious and thrift}'? Will any 
one gravely pretend that this torrent of fanaticism in the North has 
no other origin except a desire to compel the people of the South to 
be more industrious, and to take better care of their own interests, and 
be more attentive to their own business? The idea is preposterous. 
I have no doubt but that misrepresentations on these points have con- 
tributed to strengthen the anti-slavery party. But, sir, is there any 
difficulty in making a complete defence on this point? With no 
wish, Mr. President, to wound the sensibilities of any one, or to claim 
superiority for my section, let us, nevertheless, look at some of the 
principal facts. One of the best tests of the prosperity of a country 
and its healthy condition is the progress of its population. Compare 
the population of the fifteen slaveholding States with that of all the 
free States as shown by the census of 1840 and 1850, the last decade 



(472) 

ascertained. If we deduct from both sections the foreign emigrant 
population, which is an accidental increment, it will be found that the 
slavfcholding States have increased much faster in population than the 
free States. 

Again, sir, a fair estimate of the wealth of the two sections will show 
that the citizens of the Southern States are as rich per head, I think in 
fact richer, than those of the free States. It was also shown by Mr. 
Branch, a colleague of mine, some two years ago, that of the old Atlan- 
tic States the shaveholding had more miles of railroad in proportion 
to their white population than the free States. There are other evi-. 
dences of our material wealth, to which I will presently advert. On 
the score of morals, it may be said that we have fewer criminals and 
paupers, and, proportionately, church accommodations for a larger 
number of members. 

It is said, however, that any one who merely looks at the two sec- 
tions will see the inferiority of the Southern system. But you must 
remember that our population is extended over a territory of nine 
hundred thousand miles in extent, while many of the Northern States 
have a dense population. It is the tendency of an agricultural people, 
with an unlimited area, to extend itself rapidly at first, while com- 
merce and manufactures concentrate population. Tried by this 
standard, any one of a dozen monarchies which I passed through, 
during the past summer, has the advantage of any portion of the 
Union. Even Italy, oppressed as it has been for ages, in its agri- 
cultural landscape, can bring to shame the best cultivated State of 
New England. According to the logic of the Abolitionists, these States 
ought to be placed under the dominion of the House of Austria or the 
Pope of Rome. The entire State of Massachusetts is not larger than 
one of the Congressional districts of North Carolina. Where a million 
of people are brought within a small area, the eye of the observer 
rests on many habitations and fields. In time, the whole Union, if 
filled with people, may be superior to the best cultivated parts of 
Europe; but even now, the inhabitants of sparsely-settled districts 
have as much wealth and comfort, all things being considered, as those 
who live in crowded communities. At no period of our history have 
the Southern States been more prosperous than at present, and even 
were during the commercial pressure of 1857, which has so seriously 
affected the Northern States. 

I do not, however, propose, Mr. President, to enter into a general 
argument on these topics, but to maintain that the conservative men 



(478) 

of the North have within their reach facts enough to establish two 
propositions. The first is, that the negro, in the condition of slavery, 
is not a proper object for sympathy, and is, in fact, benefited by his 
subjection. The second one is, that the white race are not injured by 
the institution; that the Southern States constitute, in the aggregate, 
a prosperous community, and ought not to be the subject of denun- 
ciation at the North. Should this be made to appear, then, whatever of 
real feeling exists against us will be diminished, and, in that event, we 
may expect that persons who, like the Senator from New York, (Mr. 
Seward) patronize abolition from such motives as induce a jockey on 
a race-course to back the horse that he thinks likely to win — all such 
persons, I say, will find it expedient to abandon anti-slavery agitation 
as a trade. To effect such results, however, the friends of the Consti- 
tution in the North must make up their minds to undergo the labor 
of a Ihorough canvass of their region against the anti-slavery men, 
and by proper publications refute their misrepresentations. 

The Abolitionists declaim constantly against the slave poioer. Why, 
sir, it is sixteen years since there was any attempt by the Democratic 
party to nominate a citizen of the slaveholding States for the office of 
President ; and for the last ten years, in the conventions of all parties, 
the contest has been solely among Northern men. In fact, during 
that period no electoral vote has been given in a slaveholding State, 
for the office of President, to an\ Southern man. Our only object has 
been to select among Northern gentlemen one who was not our enemy. 
The men chosen have been assailed by our opponents, not because they 
were neglectful of any Northern interest, but simply because they were 
willing to do us equal justice with the other section, and refused to 
exercise the powers of the common government against us. 

It has been urged that the Southern States should, by retaliatory 
legislation, prohibit the sale within their limits, of the productions 
of those of the Northern States that have failed to do us justice. 
As the Constitution of the United States has been interpreted, both 
by the Federal and State courts, there is ample power to effect this 
by imposing a tax on articles after they have been imported and 
the packages broken; in other words, on retailers. Two objects are 
expected to be effected by this system. In the first place, to make 
it the interest of the Northern States to counteract the efforts of the 
Abolitionists; and secondly, to prepare the Southern States for a sepa- 
ration, if they should find it necessary to take such a step. 
60 



(474) 

I have often thought, Mr. President, that it was unfortunate that the 
framers of the Constitution made no provision for the expulsion of a 
State. If the Union be a place of misery, then, to punish refractory 
members, they should undoubtedly be kept in it, as criminals are 
detained in penitentiaries; but if, on the other hand, it be a beneficial 
and desirable thing to remain in the Union, then bad members qught 
to be excluded from it. No State, in my judgment, has a right to 
enjo}' the advantages of the Union, and yet refuse to submit to the 
obligations it imposes. Such laws of Congress as are held by the 
courts to be constitutional ought to be obeyed by all the States that 
share the advantages of the Union. If, for example, when a dozen 
years ago the State of Massachusetts passed laws to nullify the act for 
the recovery of fugitives, if she had been expelled from the Union, 
two striking effects would have been produced. In the first place, the 
consciences of the inhabitants of that State would have been* freed 
from all responsibility for the sin and turpitude of slavery; and, 
secondl}^ their goods, when brought into the United States, would 
have been taxed as those of other foreigners are. The impression 
which such an occurrence would have made on their minds and those 
of the country generally, might possibl}^ then have arrested the anti- 
slavery movement when it was comparatively feeble. In the present 
condition of things, such a course would not be practicable, perhaps. 

If, however, Mr President, this hostile movement of the anti-slavery 
party cannot he arrested under the Constitution, let us consider the 
second remedy, namel}^ a temporary or permanent separation of the 
Southern from the Northern States. 

Senators on the other side of the Chamber do not think this will 
occur. When Giddings and others proclaim that "the South cannot be 
kicked out of the Union," such a declaration is received b}'- the anti- 
slavery party of the country with evident satisfaction, and generally 
with applause. You, Senators and your supporters do not believe 
there is danger in any event, because prominent slaveholders and men 
of wealth occasionally tell you they are conservative, and that the 
Southern people will submit to any treatment you may think fit to 
impose. But you should remember that these persons are not always 
the readiest to volunteer to defend the country in time of war, and 
that many of them dread civil commotions. During our revolution 
there were wealthy Tories in every one of the colonies; and at the time 
General Washington evacuated the city of New York, he was urged by 
one of his subordinate officers, a Northern man, to burn the city, for 



(475) 

the reason that two-thirds of the property to be destroyed belonged to 
Tories. 

You do not believe, also, because you say that if the South were in 
earnest, it would be more united, and would not send up as she does 
from certain districts, members of Congress who assist you in party 
movements, and in answer to your threats proclaim their love of the 
Union. 

You should understand, however, that the constituencies of such 
member are merely misled as to the purposes, principles and power of 
your party by those newspapers on which they rely for information, 
Let them have proper knowledge as to the condition of the country 
where your influence prevails, and they will manifest the same feeling 
that the rest of the South does. Gradually a knowledge of your move- 
ments and objects is spreading over the Southern States. Two occur- 
rences have materially contributed to unmask your objects and disclose 
the dangers which threaten. The first was the vote which Mr. Fill- 
more received in 1856. When it was seen that a man like him, of 
avowed anti-slavery opinions, merely because he showed his willing- 
ness to enforce the fugitive slave law, and declared his purpose to give 
to the South the benefits of the Constitution, was beaten largely in 
every free State, by a mere adventurer like Fremont, a great impres- 
sion was made on the conservative men of the South. They began to 
realize the state of feeling in the North, and more disunionists were 
made by that occurrence than perhaps any one which proceeded it. 

The second incident which caused even a much stronger impression 
on the minds of the Southern people, was the manner in which the acts 
of John Brown were received in the North. Instead of the indignation 
and abhorrence which the atrociousness of his crimes ought naturally 
to have excited, there were manifestations of admiration and sympa- 
thy. Large meetings were held to express these feelings, sermons and 
prayers were made in his behalf, church bells tolled and cannon fired, 
and more significant than all these, were the declarations of almost the 
entire Republican press, that his punishment would strengthen the 
anti-slavery cause. Yet Senators tell us that these things were done 
because of the courage Brown exhibited. But our people think you 
are mistaken. Though the mere thief may be, and usually is, a coward, 
yet it is well known that men who engage in robbery or piracy, as a 
profession, generally possess courage. Criminals have been executed 
frequently in New England who, both in the commission of their crimes 
and in their death, manifested as much courage as John Brown, and 



(476) 

yet none of them called forth such feelings of sympathy. At a meet- 
ing in Boston, where thousands were assembled, when Emerson, a lit- 
erary man of eminence, proclaimed that Brown had made " the gallows 
as glorious as the cross," he was rapturously applauded. At the large 
meeting at Natick, where the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Wilson) 
was a spectator, the principal orator, Wright, declared that the people 
of the North look upon "Jesus Chris! as a dead failure',' and hereafter 
will rely on "John Brown, and him hanged." 

In the Southern States where old-fashioned Christian notions still 
prevail, it would be thought right to beat such blasphemers even out 
of a church, if they had congregated there. We are told now that they 
were not interrupted because the people of Massachusetts are law-aUd- 
ing, and in favor of the Uljerty of speech. But our constituents do not 
believe one word of this, because they know that of all the people in the 
Union, the inhabitants of Massachusetts are the most excitable and 
the most intolerant and overbearing. They know that men who dare 
to oppose the anti-slavery party there are persecuted with intense 
hatred ; that mobs can be gotten upon the smallest occasions, and that 
ten thousand men can be assembled on the shortest notice to rescue a 
runaway negro from the custody of a United States Marshal. 

Our people know that these things could not have occurred unless 
there had been an intense feeling of hostility to the South, and, there- 
fore, strong sympathy with our assailants. Is not this the reason why 
your leading editors have declared that the punishment of John Brown 
will strengthen the anti-slavery cause? Such is the construction the 
people of the South put on this whole matter, and hence the demon- 
strations you witness among them. 

But you hold that the South is unable and unwilling to resist 
you; and the Senator from 'New York (Mr. Seward) has declared, in 
substance, that the Union is never to be dissolved. He also told 
the Senate that the contest between the free and slaveholding States 
had ended by the former winning the victory. He and the rest of 
you expect us in the future to submit c|uietly to what you may see fit 
to order. Had the British Parliament believed that the colonies 
would resist their tax bills our Revolution would not have occurred ; 
but Lord North and others declared that the clamor in America came 
from a few seditious agitators, and that the great body of the people 
were so loyal to the government that they were ready to submit to the 
action of the Parliament. They affirmed that there was no danger of 
resistance; and, least of all, of their thinking of dissolving the union 



(477) 

with the mother country. Our ancestors wisely determined that the 
cai^'non of Great Britain were less dangerous than her acts of Parlia- 
ment. 

Let us look at this matter for a few moments calmly. At this time 
the population of the South is nearly thirteen million, of which more 
than eight million are free persons and four million slaves. At the 
beginning of our Revolution the population of the colonies, both free 
and slave, was less than three million. The slaveholding States are 
then far more than four times as strong as were the colonies when 
they dissolved the union with Great Britain. 

Is it likely that after having been independent for eighty years, our 
peo])le are less attached to their rights? But many of your Abolition- 
ists say that slaveholding has enfeebled our people, and rendered them 
so spiritless that they are neither willing nor able to make defence. 
Edmund Burke thought differently, and said that of all men, slave- 
holders were the most tenacious of their rights, and defended their 
liberties with the highest and haughtiest spirit. I do not refer to the 
war of the Revolution, when all the States were slaveholding; but in 
* the last war with Great Britain, the Southern States sent out more men 
than the Northern, and it has never yet, as far as I have heard, been 
pretended that Harrison and Johnson, Scott and Fors3^th, were not as 
brave as those wdio went from the free States to the Canada line, or 
that Jackson and the men under him in the Southwest, did not ex- 
hibit a proper courage. To the war with Mexico, though much the 
less populous section, the South sent nearly tv/ice as many men as the 
North. A leading Black Republican editor says that one regiment 
from New York would be able to conquer all the Southern States. A 
regiment from the State of New York certainly conducted itself well 
during the Mexican war; but it has not, I think, been affirmed that 
it behaved better than the regiments from the slaveholding States. 
If you, therefore, think that one of your regiments is able to subdue 
the South, our people will probable differ with you in opinion. You 
say that fear of the slaves will prevent any resistance to you. As a 
sudden movement of a few negroes, stimulated by abolition emissaries, 
might destroy a family or two, there is undoubtedly apprehension felt. 
Fifty persons, however, are killed in this country by vicious and un- 
manageable horses, to one who suffers from the act of a rebellious 
negro. There is, in fact, about as much reason to apprehend a general 
insurrection of the horses as of the slaves of the South when left to 
themselves. When, during the war of 1812, the British armies w^ere 



(478) 

• 
in the slaveholding territory, though they induced a number of slaves 

to join them, they found no advantage to result from it, and their 
government paid for all carried off at the close of the war. Though 
the Spartans and Romans were the greatest slaveholders in the world, 
and though, too, they held in the most rigid servitude men of their 
own color and race, and therefore liable to rebel in great force, yet they 
were strong enough to overthrow all their enemies. In our opinion, 
the slaves are a positive element of strength, because they add to the 
production of the country, while the white race can furnish soldiers 
enough. Every man, too, among us, is accustomed to ride and to carry 
weapons from his childhood. 

There are, however, other important elements to be taken into the 
account. During the last fiscal year the exports of the United States, 
exclusive of specie, were $278,000,000. Of this amount, the free States 
furnished, exclusively, $5,281,000, the slave States $188,000,000, and 
the two sections jointly, also, $84,417,000. Of this latter sum of 
$84,000,000, the slave States probably furnished one-third, but cer- 
tainly one-fourth. A fourth added to the amount exclusively fur- 
nished by them, makes a total of $210,000,000 as the value of their 
exports to foreign countries. They also exported a large amount to 
the free States. New England alone received about fifty million 
dollars' worth of Southern productions; and to the rest of the free 
States were sent, doubtless, more. The entire exports from the slave- 
holding States to the free States, and to foreign countries combined, 
must greatly have exceeded three hundred million dollars. As the 
South sells this much, it, of course, can afford to buy a like amount. 
If, therefore, it constituted a separate confederacy, its imports would 
exceed three hundred million dollars; a duty of twenty per cent, on 
this amount, which would be a lower rate than has generally been 
paid under our tariffs heretofore, would yield a revenue of $60,000,000. 
More than fifty million of this sum could well be spared for the defence 
of our section, and the support of larger armies and navies than the 
present government has. Though it may seem strange to you that 
the South should in this way raise as large a revenue as the whole 
Union has ever done, and this too, with a lower tariff, you must remem- 
ber that most of the tariff taxes the South pays go, in fact, in the 
shape of protection to those Northern manufacturers who threaten us 
with negro insurrection and subjugation. Do you think that with 
these prospects before our people they are ready to submit uncondi- 
tionally to you ? They have the strongest feelings of contempt for 



(479) 

the avaricious and greedy, the canting and hypocritical, the mean, 
envious, and malicious Abolitionists. Little as the3^ may think of the 
free negro, he is, in their judgment, more respectable than the white 
man who comes down to his level; and with all the world to choose a 
master from, your negro worshiper would be their last choice. 

In making up our calculations, we must also look to the other side. 
The free States have a population of seventeen or eighteen millions. 
Though this is considerably more, numerically, than our strength, yet 
it is much less, relatively, than was the population of Great Britain in 
1776. I have no doubt that your people are courageous, generally ; 
but the best and bravest of them are in the Democratic ranks; and, 
while they would defend their section, if attacked, I doubt if they 
would easily be induced to assail us. Many of your Abolitionists 
belong to the ^'' peace pcirtij,^'' and have little appetite for cold steel, 
though they are the most efficient in getting up popular clamors, and 
are formidable at the ballot-box. It is also true, that while everything 
the South needs she can either produce or commonly get cheaper in 
Europe, under a system of free trade, your Northeastern States are 
especially dependent on the South for its productions and freights. 
How many of your manufacturers and mechanics would emigrate 
to the South to avoid the payment of tariff taxes? If it were known 
that one-third of the stores in New York could not be rented, how 
much would real property fall, then? Deprived of Southern freights, 
what would be the loss on your vast shipping interest? I give you, in 
this calculation, the benefit of the assumption that all the free States 
would go with you. In fact, I do not believe that the Northwest would 
remain connected with New England, still less that you could retain 
California and Oregon. 

But you, Senators, do not believe the South will resist. Look for a 
moment at the course of things there. In those sections that I am 
best acquainted with, there are hundreds of disunionists now M'here 
there was one ten years ago. By disunionists, I mean men who would 
prefer to see the Union continue, if the Constitution were fairly admin- 
istered, but who have already deliberately come to the conclusion that 
this is impossible, and would willingly to-day see the LTnion dissolved. 
In some of the States, this class constitutes decided majorities now, and 
in others where they are not, the majority is ready to unite with them 
upon the happening of some further causes. In my judgment, the 
election of the presidential candidate of the Black Republican party 
will furnish that cause. The principles of that party, as announced 



(480) 

in the contest of 1856, were such that no honorable Southern mau 
could possibly belong to it. I see that the general committee, in their 
call, properly take this view, and only extend their invitation to the 
opposition in the free States. What precise anti-slavery platform they 
adopt is not very important, as they will of course make it so as to 
obtain the support of their most moderate members, knowing that the 
ultra ones will go with them anyhow. In fact they know that, in the 
language of the Senator from New York, (Mr. Seward) "circumstances 
determine possibilities," and that he and they are willing " at all 
times" to do all they can, in power or out of it, to overthrow slavery. 
It is said, however, that we ought to wait for some overt act; and 
the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Hale) the other day declared 
that it was wrong and insolent for Southern men to talk of resisting 
merely because they, the Republicans, elected men to carry out ''■their 
■views r'' That Senator is very wise, and knows that when a man 
wishes to subdue a wild horse, he treats the animal with the greatest 
kindness at first, and commits no overt act on him until he is loeZl and 
securely tied. Suppose that your candidate was known to be in favor 
of making a treaty with Great Britain, by which the United States 
were to be reannexed as colonies to that country, and he had been 
elected by the majority of votes, would the minority, who might still 
wish to preserve their independence, be bound to wait until the treaty 
had been actually ratified, and British armies had taken possession of 
the country, and began to maltreat the inhabitants? In the present 
case, the ver}^ inauguration of your candidate makes him commander 
of the army and navy. One of his first acts would be, doubtless, to 
station them advantageously, while, at the same ti)ne, he could care- 
fully remove from the South all the public arms, lest the people should 
take them for defence. He would fill the Southern States with post- 
masters and other officials, whose eftbrts would oe directed to dividing, 
as much as possible, the people of the South, and to forming connec- 
tions with the negroes. Doubtless, some such policy as this would be 
adopted before any direct blow was struck at slavery anywhere. 
Should we, under these disadvantages, begin to resist, a long and 
bloody struggle, like that of our Revolution, might be the consequence. 
The very impression that Fremont was to be elected produced some 
disturbances among the slaves; and with a Black Republican Presi- 
dent a hundred such forays as John Brown's might occur in a single 
year. Though the negroes left to themselves are harmless, yet when 
assisted and led on by Europeans in St. Domingo, they destroyed the 



( 481 ) 

white inhabitants. As the Senator from New York (Mr. Seward) holds 
that the constitutional guarantees in favor of slavery, being "in viola- 
tion of the divine law, cannot be enforced, and " ought to be relin- 
quished," he would be on the side of the negro. 

The objections are not personal merely to this Senator, but apply 
equally to any member of the party elected by it. It has, in fact, 
been suggested that, as a matter of prudence, for the first election they 
should choose a Southern Free-Soiler. Would the colonies have sub- 
mitted more willingly to Benedict Arnold than to Lord Cornwallis? By 
way of jjalliation it has been said, that even if a Black Republican 
should be elected, he would probably disappoint his party, and be 
more conservative than they are ; and that the worst he would do, 
might be to plunder the country, by legislation or otherwise. This, 
however, would be only a reprieve to us ; for the very fact of his elec- 
tion on such grounds, and our submission, as it would destroy our 
friends in the North, would demoralize and degrade our own people 
and render them incapable of resistance, while our enemies flushed 
with success, would select afterwards, more ultra agents to carry out 
their "views." No other '' overt acf'' can so imperatively demand 
resistance on our part, as the simple election of their candidate. Their 
organization is one of avowed hostility, and they come against us as 
enemies; and should we submit we shall be in the condition of an 
army which surrenders at discretion, and can only expect such terms 
as the humanity of the conqueror may grant. 

But, we are asked how we will go about making a revolution or dis- 
solving the Union ? This would possibly have been a difficult ques- 
tion to answer during the first year of our Revolution, when our fore- 
fathers were avowedly fighting to get good terms of reconciliation with 
the mother country. Mr. Jefferson said that six weeks before the Dec- 
laration -was made, a majority of the men who made it had not even 
thought of independence. The people of the colonies, though they 
had not authorized anybody to make it, accepted it, nevertheless, as a 
fact. 

Who anticipated the sudden revolutions that overthrew several 
monarchies in France? Though it requires skill to create govern- 
ments, yet men often destroy them very unscientifically. As the 
main strength of all governments is in public opinion, so, when that 
is forfeited, they often seem to fall easily and suddenly. As the gov- 
ernment of the United States, with the attachment of its citizens, is 
61 



(482) 

the strongest in the world, so, when that is lost, it would become one of 
the weakest. 

I may say, however, that I do not think there will be an}^ secession 
of the Southern members of Congress from this Capitol. It has always 
struck me that this is a point not to be voluntarily surrendered to the 
public enemy. If lives should be lost here, it would seem poetically 
just that this should occur. I cannot find words enough to express 
my abhorrence and detestation of such creatures as Garrison and Wen- 
dell Phillips, who stimulate others to deeds of blood, and, at the same 
time, are so cowardly that they avoid all danger themselves. As from 
this Capitol so much has gone forth to inflame the public mind, if our 
countrymen are to be involved in a bloody struggle, I trust in God 
that the first fruits of the collision may be reaped here. While it is 
due to justice that I should speak thus, it is but fair to myself to say, 
that I do not remember a time when I would have been willing to 
sacrifice the life of an innocent person to save my own ; and I have 
never doubted but that it was the duty of every citizen to give his life 
cheerfully to preserve the union of these States, while that Union was 
founded on an honest observance of the Constitution. Of the benefits 
of this Confederacy to all sections, provided justice be done in the 
administration of the government, there can be no question. 

Independently of its advantages to us all, there are reasons why it 
should be maintained. Considerations of this kind were, during the 
last year, brought to my mind from new points of view, and with 
added force. When, last spring, I landed in England, I found that 
country agitated with questions of reform. In the struggle which was 
maintained on both sides with the greatest animation, there were con- 
stant references to the United States; and the force of our example 
was stimulating the Liberals, and tending to the overthrow of aristo- 
cratic and monarchic restrictions. Our institutions and our opinions 
were referred to only to be applauded, except by a small but influen- 
tial aristocratic clique. That oligarchy cannot forget the Revolution 
of July, 1776, which deprived Britain of this magnificent western 
empire; and it sees, with even bitterer feelings, its own waning power 
and vanishing privileges under the inspiriting influences of our pros- 
perity. It, however, is always ready to take by the hand any Ameri- 
can of prominent position who habitually denounces and depreciates 
his own government, and labors for its overthrow. 

In this connection, I remember a statement made to me by the late 
American Minister at Paris, Mr. Mason. He spoke of having had a 



(483) 

conversation with one, whose name I do not feel at liberty to mention, 
but whose influence on the opinion of continental Europe is consider- 
able, who admitted to him that there was notliing in fact wrong in our 
negro slavery; but who, nevertheless, declared that if the Union of our 
States continued, at no distant day we should control the world; and, 
therefore, as an European, he felt it to be his duty to press anti-slavery 
views, as the only chance to divide us. I have other and many reasons 
to know that the monarchies of Europe, threatened with downfall from 
revolutionary movements, seek, through such channels as they control, 
to make similar impressions. A hundred times was the question 
asked me, " Will you divide in America?" But never once was the 
inquiry made of me, " Will slavery be abolished, will your country 
become more respectable in the eyes of the Abolitionists?" The mid- 
dle and lower classes of England, who are struggling to acquire addi- 
tional privileges, look with satisfaction and hope to our progress. 
France, too, is imbued with American ideas, and, notwithstanding its 
despotic form of government, is one of the most democratic countries 
in Europe. Italy I found in the midst of revolutions, and its monar- 
chies falling down without even a day's notice, and its inhabitants, 
while recalling the republican ideas of past ages, looked with exulta- 
tion to that great trans- Atlantic Confederacy, where there are no kings 
and no dukes; and more tlian once, while passing through Tuscany or 
Lombardy, the enthusiasm of the people reminded me, by their music 
and banners and shoutings, of my own countrymen, at a Fourth of 
July celebration. Germany, the receptacle of millions of letters from 
this side of the water, is being rapidly educated and is already far 
advanced to a stable free system. The Swiss and the Belgians are 
boasting of the resemblances of their governments and ours. Every- 
where, too, are our countrymen distinguished and recognized for their 
intellectual activity and energy. The people abroad have, perhaps, 
exaggerated ideas of our immense progress, our vast power, and grow- 
ing ascendency in the civilized world. The masses, pressed down by 
military conscriptions and inordinate taxation, look with pride and 
confidence to the great American Republic, that in time they hope will 
dominate over the earth and break the power of its kings. But the 
Senator from New York, (Mr. Seward) and those who act with him, 
have determined that these hopes shall no longer be cherished, and 
that our system shall fall, to gratify the wishes and meet the views of 
the British Exeter Hall anti-slavery society. He holds that our gov- 
ernment has hitherto been administered in "violation of the divine 



(484) 

law," and that our former institutions must give way to the " higher 
law^^ abolitionism, and free negroism. This is the issue we are now 
called upon to meet. 

Should the decision of the ides of November be adverse to the for- 
tunes of the Republic, it will become the high duty of the South, at 
least, to protect itself. Northern gentlemen, I believe, with great 
unanimity say that if the conditions were reversed they would not be 
willing to submit for a moment; and many, like Mr. Fillmore, do us 
the justice to say that it would be "madness or folly to believe" that 
we would "submit to be governed by such a Chief Magistrate" as Fre- 
mont. The general tone of feeling in the South, and the rapid forma- 
tion of vigilance committees and military companies, indicate that our 
people have not forgotten the lessons of the Revolution, and there 
may be a contest among the States as to which shall be most prompt 
to resist. 

To avoid any such necessity, our people are disposed, generally, to 
make every effort consistent with honor. They will, with great unan- 
imity, go into battle upon the old platform of principles, and, waiving 
all past issues, heartily support the standard-bearer who may be selected. 
But the fate of the country mainly depends upon the success which 
may crown the efforts of those brave and patriotic men in the North, 
who, in spite of the odds arrayed against them, have so long main- 
tained an unequal struggle against the anti-slavery current. They 
fight under a flag which waves in every State of the Union. Should 
it fall, it carries with it an older and still more honored emblem — that 
banner under which Washington marched to victory, which Jackson 
maintained triumphantly, and which has been borne gallantly and 
gloriously over every sea. I have still confidence in the good fortune 
of the United States, and in view of the many providential occurrences 
in the past, still anticipate a triumph for the Republic. 

NOTE. 

It shoitld be borne in mind that this speech was made before steps had 
been taken towards that most extraordinaiy movement to divide and destroy 
the Democratic party, which soon afterwards was developed. That con- 
spiracy, in which Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Jefferson Davis and Mr. John Shdell 
were the most influential actors, so much surpassed in its insanity and wick- 
edness all similar events in the history of humanity, that no one can fairly be 
blamed for not anticipatinsj it. At no moment since, has it appeared to me 
as less irrational than it did in its inception. I then compared it to the con- 
duct of a man about to do battle for his life, who should, as a prepartory step, 
cut off one arm and one leg, in order that he might march and strike with 
more efficiency. 



1485) 

But for this event, there woukl ahnost certainly have been "but a single 
presidential ticket in the South, ij;s whole vote would have heeu cast solidly, 
and in the event of defeat, such States as Kentucky would have been not less 
ready to take action than South Carolina. In fact, Mr, Crittenden, then the 
most influential Tuember of the Whig i)arty, repeatedly assui-ed mo that if we 
should make a harmonious nomination, he felt confident that his own party 
would make no nominatiou whatever. Even after the split at Charleston, he 
told me that he had used his influence in the convention of his own party to 
prevent the nomination of Governor Saml. Houston, of Texas, because he 
feared that he might be strong enough to take some Democratic votes, and 
thus weaken our candidate. He desired that the Democratic candidate i>hould 
have the best possible chance to win. 



[When the project to divide the party was first brought to the consideration 
of the Senatorial Democratic caucus, a decided majority of the members was 
against the movement and in favor of keeping the party united on the plat- 
form upon which it had carried the two previous presidential contests. The 
chief actors in the conspiracy, aided by some others less influential, were 
indefatigable in their efforts, so that by the time the Charleston Convention 
had asse^ubled, it was doubtful which party really had the majority among 
the Democratic Senators. In fact, nearly a third of the Senators seemed to 
be hesitating between their convictions of what was right in itself, and what 
would be most agreeable to those who so earnestly entreated tlieir co-o})era- 
tion. It was only at the last moment, just before' the convention adjourned 
over to meet at Baltimore that some of the Senators gave their adhesion to 
the seceders. 

So extraordinary and so monstrous did the action at Charleston seem, that the 
public mind was bewildered. Some of the Republican, pa})ers declared that 
what was done there was merely a transparent strategem to strengthen our 
party at the jSTorth. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, said to me that it 
was clear that the purpose of the Charleston movement was merely a trick to 
- strengthen Mr. Douglas at the North, by creating the impression there that 
the Southern idtras were against him. Our opponents seenuMl at first unable 
to realize the fact that the Democratic leaders should be so insane as thus to 
seek to destroy themselves in the face of their enemies. 

What might be the final result at Baltimore was still in so much doubt 
that it was deemed by the disorganizers necessary to get the opinion of the 
Senate on the questions at issue. When the resolutions of Mr. Davis were 
under consideration, after his speech in their favor, I occupied the floor. As 
some of the Senators seemed to be in doubt as to their action, and several 
who had rather given assent to the movement, appeared still to hesitate, sup- 
pressing my indignation, I sought to state my opinions in a manner as con- 
ciliatory as possible. In fact, I rather lent forward as far as I possibly could 
towards those opposed to ray view, and strained politeness itself in the hope 
that some might be won back, who seemed not satisfied to take the irrevocable 
step that was to divide the Democratic party, and ensure the election of a 
man who had declared that the Union could not endure part slave and jjart 
free as it had till then existed.] 



(486) 



SPEECH 

ON THE SUBJECT OF CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION AS TO 
THE RIGHTS OF PROPERTY IN THE TERRITORIES, DELIV- 
ERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, MAY Vth 

AND 8th, 1860. 

The Senate liaving under consideration the resolutions offered by Mr. Davis, of 

Mississippi — - 

Mr. Cliii<i;inan said : 

Mr. Pbesidp:nt : Most of the speech of the Senator from Mississippi 
(Mr. Davis) I cordiallj appro^'e. There are one or two points, however, 
in which I differ with hiin ; and notwithstanding the lateness of the 
hour, if Senators will indul<»;e me, I shall endeavor to state them. If I 
understand his resolutions aright, they contemplate intervention by 
Congress for the protection, in the Territories, of property in slaves. 
For some years past we have stood on the doctrine of non-intervention, 
and there is no middle ground which we can take. 

The Senator from Mississippi sajs that he does not approve of a slave 
code. Well, sir, what are we to understand by a slave code ? I take it 
to be legislation to protect, or to regulate property in slaves. If you 
depart from the principle of non-intervention, and legislate to protect 
property in slaves, you necessarily make some sort of a slave code, 
and it may be either a short one or a long one. 

I am opposed to departing, at this time, from the policy of non-inter- 
vention. I was not one of the original advocates of that measure. On 
the contrary, twelve or fifteen years ago, in common with the great body 
of the South, I maintained the opinion that the Federal Government 
had complete jurisdiction over the Territories ; and I voted for the 
extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific. That neces- 
sarily implied two things : first, that Congress had power to prohibit 
slavery in the Territories ; second, that it had power to establish or pro- 
tect it ; because the original Missouri compromise line declared, in the 
exact terms of the Wilmot proviso, that north of the line of 36 deg. 30 
min. slavery or involuntary servitude never should exist, while it 
was allowed to remain south of it. Every one of us who voted for 
the extension of that line thereby necessarily admitted that the Govern- 
ment had authority to establish or protect slavery in ;i Territory, and 
also to prohibit it. We were all sworn to support the Constitution ; 
and if we had denied the power, we could not liave given the vote. I 
am free to say that I subsequently changed my opinion ; and prior to 
the decision in tlie Dred Scott case I published my views in accordance 
with the doctrine laid down in that decision, as I understand it. That, 
however, is merely personal to myself, and cannot affect the Senate. 

But, sir, in 1847, General Cass brought forward the non-intervention 
doctrine. He was sustained by Daniel S. Dickinson and by John C. 
Calhoun, and other distinguished statesmen; and though I was then an 
opponent of it, I am free to say that I believe its advocates were per- 



( 487 ) 

haps nearer right than I was. So remarkable was the statement of Mr. 
Calhoun at that time that I shall ask the indulgence of the Senate for a 
single moment while I read a few extracts from his speech. Some of 
his remarks were almost prophetic, and anything from him has great 
weight with gentlemen of the school to which the Senator from Missis- 
sippi and myself belong. In his opening remarks in his speech of June 
2Tth, 1848, he said: 

" Tliere is a very striking difference between tlie position in which the 
slaveholdiug and non-slaveholding States stand in reference to the subject 
under consideration. The former desire no action of tlie Government; de- 
mand no law to give them any advantage in the Territory about to be estab- 
lished; are willing to leave it, and other Territories belonging to tlie United 
States, open to all their citizens, so long as they continue to be Territories, 
and when they cease to be so, to leave it to their inhabitants to form such 
governments as may suit thein, without restriction or condition, except that 
imposed by the Constitution as a j^re-requisite for admission into the Union. 
In short, they are willing to leave the whole subject where the Constitution 
and the great and fundamental principles of self-government place it." 

What further did he say ? 

"Nor should tlie North fear that, by leaving it where justice and the 
Constitution leave it, she would be excluded from lier full share of the Ter- 
ritories. In my opinion, if it be left there, climate, soil, and other circum- 
stances, would fix the line between the slaveholdiug and non-slaveholding 
States in about 36 deg. 30 min. It may zig-zag a little, to accommodate 
itself to circumstances; sometimes passing to the north and at others to the 
south of it ; but that would matter little, and would be more satisfactory to 
all, and tend less to alienaiion between the two great sections than a rigid, 
straight, artificial line, prescribed by an act of Congress." 

"But I go further, and hold that justice and the Constitution are the 
easiest and safest guard on which the question can be settled, regarded in 
reference to party. It may be settled on that ground simply by non-action— 
by leaving the Territories free and open to the emigration of all tlie world, 
so long as they continue so; and when they become States, to adopt what- 
ever constitution they please, with the single restriction to be republican, in 
order to their admission into the Union. If a party cannot safely take tliis 
broad and solid position, and successfully maintain it, what other can it take 
and maintain ?" 

Remember this was an earnest exhortation to the Democratic party, 
prior to the assemblage of its national convention in that year. 

" If it cannot maintain itself by an appeal to the gi-eat principles of jus- 
tice, the Constitution, and self-government, to what other, sufticiently strong 
to uphold them in public opinion, can they appeal ? I greatly mistake the 
character of the people of this Union, if such an appeal would not prove 
successful, if either party should have the maguauimity to step forwai'd and 
boldly make it. It would, in my opinion, be received with shouts of appro- 
bation by the patriotic and intelligent in every quarter. There is a deep 
feeling pervading the country that the Union and our political institutions 



( 488 ) 

are In danger, which such a course would dispel." — -Appendix to Congress- 
ional Globe, first session, Thirtieth Congress, p. 872. 

That position was taken by him and others, and maintained, and 
gradually obtained strength until, in 1850, it received a majority of the 
votes of the southern members and of the Democratic party, and became 
a part of the public law of the country. I hold, sir, that this was 
emphatically a compromise between tlie sections ; and I propose now to 
give several reasons why I am for maintaining it, although at the time 
it was adopted 1 was opposed to it. I place this view in the foreground ; 
northern gentlemen, be it recollected, insisted on the Wilmot proviso, to 
prohibit slavery in the Territories, and we of the South claimed protec- 
tion. When the Wilmot proviso was brought up, there were only seven 
or eight Democrats in the House of Representatives who resisted it. 
Among them I recollect the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) and his 
colleague at that time, who is now a member of the other House, and 
who was voted for at an early day of the session for Speaker, (Mr. Mc- 
Clernand.) Excepting those gentlemen, I believe, there is no one else now 
in the public councils from the north who opposed it. Many men of 
the north said, " If we are to legislate to fix the status of the Territo- 
ries, as we represent free communities, we will carry out their views ; 
but if you think proper to turn over the whole question to the people, 
under the Constitution, we will join you in that, and vote down the 
Wilmot proviso." That was subsequently accomplished; and in 1852, 
when the national convention adopted it, it became the settled policy of 
the country, and those in the South who had opposed it acquiesced and 
adopted it. 

Now, Mr. President, the Senator from Mississippi argues that that 
policy of non-intervention did not mean to deny the right to protect ; 
that it merely pledged Congress not to establish or to prohibit slavery, 
but did not deny protection to it. I might, by adverting to the discus- 
sions of that day, show that a different construction was then put upon 
it by gentlemen generally ; but I have some authority here which binds 
the whole party to which tliat Senator and myself belong, and which, I 
think, ought to , be conclusive — I mean the last clause of the thirty- 
second section of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which the Administration 
of that day, of which he was a member, made an x\dministration meas- 
ure, and which received the support of the Democratic members of the 
two Houses ; and I ask the particular attention of the Senate to the 
language : 

" That the Constitution, and all laws of the United States which are not 
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said Ter- 
ritory of Kansas as elsewhere within the United States, except the eighth 
section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, 
approved March 6, 1820, which, being hiconsistent with the principle of non- 
intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recog- 
nized by the legislation of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, 
is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and mean- 
ing of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form 



(489) 

and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
Constitution of the United States." 

The Missouri line was repealed ; and why ? Because it was unconsti- 
tutional or wrong in itself? No, sir; but because it was "inconsistent 
with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the 
States and Territories." 

I admit, if the act had stopped there, there might have been some 
plausibility in the argument, but what is the conclusion ? 

" Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or 
put in force any law or regulation which m^j have existed prior to the act 
of 6th March, 1820, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or abolishing 
slavery." 

That is, Congress would not only not interfere itself; would not only 
not allow its own statutes to stand in the way, but would not revive any 
old law which might have been in force by which slavery was protected 
in that Territory. Is it not perfectly clear that the whole purpose of 
the act, and of the party at that day, was to free Congress from all leg- 
islation over the subject of slavery in the Territories, whether by way 
of protection, or establishment, or prohibition, and leave the Territory 
free to act, as the Constitution permitted it ? I remember well how that 
clause came to be inserted in the bill. During the discussion, it was 
said, by gentlemen who opposed the bill, that if Congress simply re- 
pealed the restriction, the result would be that the old Louisiana law, 
establishing and protecting slavery, would be revived. To meet that 
argument this clause was introduced, became a part of the bill, and 
received the support of every friend of the bill who voted for it in both 
Houses of Congress. 

I submit, therefore, that, upon a fair construction of that act, you can 
come to no other conclusion except that Congress intended to abnegate 
the exercise of any ])ower over this question in the Territories, and to 
deny its purpose to legislate, whether to establish or prohibit, or to 
restrict or protect slavery in the Territories ; and in 1856, in our plat- 
form, we expressly declared the doctrine, '' non intervention with slavery 
in State or Territory, and in the District of Columbia." Where did 
that leave it ? Congress left it, of course, in the States, to the States ; 
in the Territories — there being no law of Congress left, for that repeal 
removed the last act of Congress which bore upon them — it lett it 
unaffected in any way by congressional legislation ; and in the District 
of Columbia slavery had already been established, and was protected b}^ 
law, so that it left it there untouched. I say this declaration received 
the unanimous assent of all the States represented in the Cincinnati 
convention. I liap])ened to be a member of that convention — the only 
convention of the kind which I believe I ever had the honor of lieing 
in ; and I may have a little personal pride in that matter, but I am 
very sure I am not mistaken when I say it was unanimously adopted by 
all the delegates there assembled, alike from the North and the South. 
We also, out of abundance of caution to meet the views of our oppo- 
62 



(490) 

nents, voted that every new State should be admitted with or without 
shivery, as it pleased. 

Then, Mr. President, where do we stand ? The Democracy of the 
North and the South agreed upon this principle of non-intervention. 
If there ever was a compromise made under this Government, that was 
one. Each side surrendered something. We surrendered our claim to 
protection ; our northern friends abandoned the Wilmot proviso, and 
everything looking to it, and met us on common ground. Though, I 
was not an original party to the agreement, I am bound to it by my 
acquiesence ; ai]d I hold that neither section can honorably depart from 
it without some gi-eat pressing necessity, which does not now exist. 

I know it is said that the Dred Scott decision has modified the ques- 
tion. I confess I do not think so. I fullj^ agree to the decision in the 
sense in which the Senator from Mississippi explains it ; but let us test 
it for a moment in this way ; in that decision the court say the Missouri 
compromise line, or the Wilmot proviso, is unconstitutional. Granted ; 
but suppose they had decided the other way, and said it was constitu- 
tional, would the northern men have had a right to come forward and 
say, " this question being settled in our favor, the Supreme Court having 
admitted that the Wilmot proviso is constitutional, we now want to go 
in for intervention against slavery ? I am sure every Democrat in tlie 
South would have said at once, " though you have this power, you are 
not bound to exercise it." Well, suppose the court decided that Con- 
gress have the i-ight to protect, and not to prohilut, can we honorably 
and fairb)', without a great pressing necessity, abandon the policy of 
non-intervention ? I think not. 

Now, is there anj such necessity ? The Senator himself admits that 
there is not. His colleague (Mr. Brown) insists that we ought to have 
a slave code or congressional legislation on the subject ; but the Senator 
from Mississippi, to whom I am replying, says that there is no such 
necessity at this time. Then why depart from the principle of non- 
intervention ? I am free to admit that if, in an unwise moment, a man 
makes a compromise that is ruinous to him, he may, under great neces- 
sity, avoid it, perhaps ; but I deny that any such necessity exists in this 
case ; and the highest evidence of it is that the Senator from Mississippi, 
who sits behind me, (Mr. Brown,) has been striving for the last three or 
four months to get a positive act passed to pi'otect slavery in Kansas, 
and he has never yet found a second for it. If any one Senator upon 
this floor, notwithstanding the urgent and eloquent appeals of that gen- 
tleman, has declared his willingness to vote for it, I have not heard him 
say so, and I do not believe there is such a one. And yet everybody 
knows that Kansas has lately refused all protection to slave property. 
If gentlemen, therefore, intend to stand up for all their rights to the 
fullest extent, wh}' not at once come up and pass a law to protect slaves 
in Kansas? They show, by their conduct, that they do not believe that 
any real necessity exists in fact for departing from non-intervention. 

I say, then, Mr. President, that in my judgment no necessity exists 
for an abandonment of the compromise ; but the Senator proposes to 
make a declaration that we shall do it in a future contingency. I have 
no doubt of the power of the Government, but why make that declara- 
tion ? A declaration of the Senate binds nobodv. These are naked 



(491) 

resolutions ; they are not laws ; they carry no force to the country except 
what may be derived from the soundness of the opinions advanced in 
them. They will not control the actions of the courts. They will not, 
perhaps, change the opinion of a single man in this country. Why pass 
them ? I think I sliall show, before I take my seat, some very valid and 
strong reasons why we should not do so. 

My first objection, then, is, that the system of non-intervention is a 
compromise, and that no necessity exists to abandon it, as I have already 
stated. I come now to my second objection. During the discussion of 
1850, the advocates of non-intervention said, if you adopt it, if you leave 
the question to the Territorial Legislature, they may pass laws to pro- 
tect slave property. I resisted it. I made speech after speech to show 
that the Mexicans were hostile to us; that tliey were not accustomed to 
slavery, and might legislate against it; but Avliat has been the result? 
New Mexico has passed the most stringent slave code. There is, per- 
haps, not a State in the Union that has, by law, protected slave prop- 
erty more securely than the Territory of ISIew Mexico, which reaches 
from Texas to the Gulf of Califoi'nia,and extends up to the tiiirty-eighth 
degree of north latitude. We wei'e content with the line of 36 deg. 30 
min., we were willing to run the Missouri line to the Pacific, and to abol- 
ish slavery absolutely north of 36 deg. 30 min., and take a mere impli- 
cation without an express protection south of it. Sir, practically by 
non-intervention, we have got more than we asked for ; we have got a 
larger amount of territory than we siiould have obtained under the Mis- 
souri compromise line. Gentlemen may say, ];)erhaps, that Kansas leg- 
islated against us. I grant it ; but we should not have got Kansas at 
all under the Missouri compromise. Kansas only comes down to the 
thirty-seventh parallel, the whole Territory being north of the Missouri 
compromise line. Besides, while jSTew Mexico has legislated in our favor, 
and the same thing, I believe, is true of Utah — 

Mr. Green. I wish to correct the Senator in a matter of fact. Utah 
has not passed any law protecting slavery. They have an apprentice 
system, which expires in a very short time. 

Mr. Clingman. lam obliged to the gentleman for the suggestion ; 
but I consider the fact with reference to tJtali immaterial, because it lies 
on a table land several thousand feet above the sea, very far north, reach- 
ing up to the forty-second parallel, and having a very cold climate. 
Surely, the Senator does not deny the fact that, as far as New Mexico is 
concerned, we have got everything we desire, and tliat it covers more 
territory than we claimed in 1850. I was about to say, though, that 
even in Kansas slave property was protected by the Territorial Legisla- 
ture for several years, but lately they have legislated against it. I believe 
that, but for the extraordinary excitement which grew up out of the 
repeal of the Missouri restriction, the Territory of Kansas never would 
have legislated adversely to us, but w'e all know that a great crowd were 
sent in there from the North, with extreme anti-slavery views, and the 
result of the excitement there has been legislation against us ; but we 
are no worse off in that respect than if we had never repealed the restric- 
tion, and we are much better off as far as the Territory of New Mexico 
is concerned, by adopting non-intervention. 

Mr. Crittenden. Will the gentleman give way to a motion to adjourn ? 



(492) 

Mr. Clingman. As it is late, if there is no objectiou to the question 
going over until to-morrow, it will be more agreeable to me. 
Mr. Crittenden. I move that the Senate adjourn. 
The motion was agreed to and the Senate adjourned. 

TUESDAY, May 8, 18G0. 

Mr. President: I hope I shall not find it necessary to occupy much 
of the time of the Senate. When I commenced last evening 1 thought 
I should be able to conclude very soon ; but finding that the explana- 
tions which 1 wished to make would take a little more time than I had 
anticipated, I gave w^ay for a motion to adjourii. I will now express, as 
rapidly as 1 can, my impressions on this question ; and it is, perhaps, 
due to myself to say that, on the 9th of January, 1857, I published a 
letter indicating my views on the whole subject, in which I took the 
position that this Government had a right and was bound to protect 
property in the Territories, but could not abolish or exclude it, and that 
a Territorial Legislature could have no greater power than Congress, 
which created the Territorj-. In that letter I said : 

" The right to legislate over the Territories of the United States has, by 
some persons, been derived from tliat clause of the Constitution which author- 
izes Congress to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respect- 
ing the territory or other property of the United States. Others maintain 
that, as an incident to the power to admit new Slates, the right to prepare 
the Territory for the condition of a State authorizes legislation. 

" If neither of these clauses should be deemed suflicient to authorize legis- 
lation, then it may be contended that, in the first place, it must now be ad- 
mitted as a settled matter, that the Government of the United States is capa- 
ble of acquiring territory by treaty, conquest, or discovery, and of holding 
or exercising authority over the same. But the Government derives all of its 
powers from the Constitution ; and, but for that instrument, the President, 
the Senators, and members of Congress, would have no more over power the 
Territory than any otiier set of people, three lumdred in number. 

"It is, however, universally admitted that the Government of the United 
States is only a trustee of })ower, or agent for the people of the United States, 
and must exercise its authority for their benefit. As the Govermueut derives 
its power solely from the Constitution, it cannot go bej'ond that instrument, 
and is bound by its limitations therefore. It could not, for example, in the 
Territory, grant titles of nobihty, establish religion, abridge the freedom of 
speech or of the press, &c. Whichever of these three sources of power be 
assumed as the true one, it seems clear that Congress and the President, in 
holding the territory, or exercising jurisdiction over it, can only legislate to 
the extent required to protect the interest of the Government and of the peo- 
ple of the United States. The preservation of its own property, and the pro- 
tection of the property and personal rights of the people, limit the extent of 
its powers. It is bound, however, to legislate or ' make needful rules,' to 
that extent. 

" A B enters the Territory with his wife, child, horse, and slave. These 
are taken away from him by force, and he is himself impi-isoned. Now, it is 
obvious that there should be laws to protect his own liberty, and also his 
right to the possession of his wife, child, liorse, and slave. Hence, it follows 
that there must be power in Congress to legislate on the subject of slavery 



(493) 

as well as in relation to wives, children, and horses. It is clear that the Gov- 
ernment has power to protect these rights. Can it go further? The Con- 
stitution declares, that ' private property shall not be taken for public use 
(even) without just compensation.' Tlie Government cannot, therefore, take 
any property, or, what is the same thing, release another from an obligation 
to me, which is in the nature of property. While it may protect, it cannot 
destroy personal rights. 

" It must be remembered, however, that every slave in the United States 
is necessarily the property of some person ; but, as the Government of the 
United States cannot destroy or take away property, it cannot, of course, 
change the relation of any one in these respects. If a person is under obli- 
gation to serve me for life, or a shorter term, he cannot be released from that 
obligation by Congress, because it cannot take my jn-operty by any law that 
it can pass, whether the law is to operate in a State or Tei'ritory. In the 
latter it is bound to preserve, that is, protect, existing rights; but it camiot 
destroy them. If, therefore, its power is limited to tlie preservation of riglits 
now in being, such a law as the Missouri compromise, whicli would destroy 
rights that already exist in certain citizens, would be unconstitutional, since 
it might, and in fact must, necessarily interfere with property in slaves. It 
seems to me that these propositions cover the whole ground of controversy; 
and hence, if they are held to be true. Congress cannot, ' except for public 
use,' and with 'just compensation,' deprive any person of an obligation on 
another, or declare that the owner's right to his slave shall not be recognized 
in au)^ Territory of the United States. And if Congress has not the i>ower 
itself, then it camiot delegate it; and hence the Kansas-Nebraska bill does 
not carry with it any such power." 

I yesterday alluded to the opinions of Mr. Callioun. It is perhaps 
rig-lit tliat I should say that, in the very same speech from which I read, 
he expressed tlie opinion that a Territorial Legislature had no rigiit to 
exclude slavery, or to legislate against it. I concu]- with him in that. 
He also, I think almost uniformly, perha]is invariabl_y, held that Con- 
gress had a right and ought to protect all property in the Territories 
subject to it's jurisdiction ; but he waived that right in his speech, to 
which I referred, and in his support of the Clayton compromise bill, 
which passed at the same session of Congress, and only a few weeks 
afterwai'ds, he again waived it. By the provisions of that bill, Congress 
did not legislate at all in relatian to slavery in the Territories, but trans- 
ferred the subject to the Territorial Legislature, with an inhibition that 
they should have no power to abolish or establish slavery — those M-ere 
the terms — but saying nothing as to how far they might legislate. It 
turned over the whole subject to them, and left them to legislate, subject, 
of course, to the control of the courts. That was the prominent idea of 
that bill. 

Now, sir, one other remark in connection with the first point which I 
made. During the discussion of 1850, I insisted that if the gentlemen 
would come forward and repeal the Missouri restriction, and throw open 
all the territor}^ I would agree to take it ; and in fact, in a speech in the 
House of Representatives, I agreed to vote for this principle if they 
would remove the restriction up to the fortieth parallel, from 36 deg. 
30 min., considering that sufficient compensation. It was not done, how- 
ever, and I opposed the scheme. But, in 1854, the northern portion of 



(494) 

the Democratic party, with great magnanimity and with great risk to 
themselves, came up and repealed this old restriction. In doing that 
they had to encounter prejudices at home; thej had to take upon their 
shoulders the responsibility of repealing a line which had been regarded 
as sanctified by thirty-four years' existence, and which was called a com- 
promise. They had the manliness, in carrying out this principle of non- 
intervention, to come forward and repeal that line. Why ? It was in 
order that all the territory might be placed upon the same footing ; and 
I hold that after that sacrifice upon their part ; that willingness to carry 
out this compromise, begun in 185(;, indorsed in 1852 by the Democratic 
and also by the Opposition convention, we of the South are under the 
highest obligation to stand to it. Now, sir, I make no reflection on any 
honorable Senator who dilfers with me on this question. I do them all 
the justice to say tliat, if they looked upon it as I do, as a compromise, 
I am very sure they would not seek to disturb it. Taking the view of 
it I do, believing that the two parties settled down upon non-interven- 
tion, I feel it to be my duty to adhere to it in the absence of any great 
pressing necessity which would justify its abandonment. 

Mi\ President, what are the points of difference between the two par- 
ties ? The Senator from Mississippi, if I read his resolutions aright, does 
not propose to favor intervention by Congress to protect slavery in the 
Territories at this time; but he declares if it should turn out hereafter 
that the existing laws are not sufficient to protect it under the Constitu- 
tion, he is then for legislation. What do those who oppose his resolu- 
tions say ? The Senator from Ohio (Mr. Pugh) and the Senator from 
Illinois "(Mr. Douglas) say that if, hereafter, the courts shall make deci- 
sions which cannot be carried out without legislation, they will legislate 
to carry them out. The Senator from Mississippi says that the Dred 
Scott decision has settled tlie question, and he wants a declaration that 
we mean to legislate in future. These gentlemen, admitting, as they 
must, that the judges have, in the Dred Scott case, expressed their 
opinion that a Territorial Legislature cannot legislate adversely to 
slavery, say, however, that point in fact was not presented in the case ; 
but that, if such was the settled opinion of the court, when a proper case 
is directly presented it will so decide ; and they stand ready to carry out 
that decision of the court when it shall be made. 

Then, do we not all come together on the same point ? The Senator 
from Mississippi says that if the court makes decisions which cannot be 
enforced without legislation, he is for legislation. These gentlemen say 
that when the court does make decisions, they will submit to them and 
carry them out. It seems, therefore, that they are traveling in lines that 
will converge and come together at a certain point. Then, why dispute 
now in advance ? 

This may be readily illustrated. Suppose I have a controversy with 
a neighbor about the title to a piece of land. Neither of us is in a hurry 
to have possession. We are willing to await the decision of the court. 
He comes to me, however, and says : " I find that the court, in express- 
ing an opinion in another case, which I admit is not like ours, and does 
not present the same facts, has declared, nevertheless, that in a case like 
yours and mine my title would be good, and thei-efore I wish you to give 
me a deed acknowledging my title to be good, though I do not want 



(495) 

and am willing to wait foi* it nntil the case is decided." 
I reply to him, " I admit that the court may have expressed such an 
opinion, but the point between us did not arise in that case, was not 
argued by my counsel or any other counsel ; all I can say to you is, if 
that be the opinion of the court, of course, when they decide our case, 
they will decide in your^avor, and I shall then surrender to you ; but I 
am not willing to assume beforehand that the court will so decide.'' It 
seems to me, then, Mr. President, that in the present condition of the 
case there is no necessity for ill-feeling on either side, or for declarations 
in advance. 

My second point was, that New Mexico had ali'eady established a slave 
code and given us more territory tlian we should have gotten under the 
Missouri line, if carried out. I come now to the third ]~>oint, and that 
is, what has grown out of the decision of the court in the Dred Scott 
case. When this subject was under debate in 1850, we of the Sonth 
objected to non-intervention on the ground that it would leave tlie Mexi- 
can law in force ; and inasmuch as the Supreme Court had maintained the 
0])inion in a case from Florida, and perhaps in some other decisions, tliat 
where territory was acquired the local law might remain in force, we 
were dssinclined to take non-intervention without a repeal of the Mexi- 
can law. During that interesting controvei'sy, we held a caucus of 
southern menibers, consisting of Senators and Representatives, and on 
that occasion the Senator from Georgia, who usually sits behind me, 
(Mr. Toombs,) introduced a proposition into our caucus that we would 
support the compromise measure if they would repeal the Mexican laws 
and substitute the British colonial laws which prevailed in our colonies 
prior to the Revolution. That was adopted, and that gentleman moved 
it in the House of Representatives as an amendment, but it was defeated. 
I am free to say that if at that time we had been satisfied that the court 
would hold that under the Constitution slave propert}' could exist and 
be protected in the Territories, without reference to local laws, I am very 
sure we should all have voted for the compromise of 1850. 

If it be true, as the Senator from Mississippi contends, that the Dred 
Scott decision settles the question and supports the right of a slave- 
holder in a Territory, then there is another strong reason why we should 
acquiesce in non-intervention at this time. This, therefore, is a tliird 
reason ; and I now propose to give one or two others why a person like 
myself, who originally did not adopt it, may now be for it. 

It has been adopted as the policy of the country for ten years. Can 
we now pass through resolutions or l)ills to establish or protect slavery 
in the Territories ? That is the question. Recollect, it is only in a case 
where the people of a Territory are hostile to our rights ; it is only 
where they are so hostile that they refuse to protect us, or even legislate 
against us that we have been called upon to exercise this power. No- 
body jjretends that there is any necessity for our going into New Mexico, 
or other Territories that are favorable to us, with this legislation. There- 
fore, the question presented is simply this : suppose a Territory is hostile 
to us, and its Legislature will not protect slave property, or even legis- 
late against it, will Congress intervene ? First, is there any political 
possibility that we can pass such a law through the two Houses ? We 
have had a test on the question already. Here is the Territory of Kan- 



(496 ) 

sas, which not only does not give us any protection, but which, I am 
informed, has legislated adversely. One Senator from Mississippi (Mr. 
Brown) has brouglit forward a proposition to interfere for tlie protection 
of slavery in that Territory, and yet he has not got one Southern man 
to back him ; and if you were to submit the question to a body of 
Southern Senators I have very great doubt whether you would get them 
to agree to such legislation. \Vhy is it ? If we of tlie South are willing 
to impose the institution — that is the common phrase — on a Territory 
against the wish of a majority, why is it that gentlemen do not come 
up and support the proposition of the Senator from Mississippi? Is it 
because it is felt that it is politically and morally wrong to interfere in 
this way ? Is that it, or is it because gentlemen know that such legis- 
lation would be unavailing I I ask why we have not induced southern 
Senators yet to come up and vote for the establishment or protection of 
slavery in Kansas, notwithstanding the adverse legislation of the terri- 
torial authorities ? I leave every gentleman to give his own reasons. 
But suppose every southern Senator went for it, we could not pass it ; 
and how many northern men are there who are ready to vote for it ? 
How many northern members are there in the other House for it ? It 
will take thirty northern Representatives to pass through such a bill. 
We all know what a clamor was raised two or tliree years ago by the 
Abolitionists — falsely raised —when it was alleged that Congress intended 
to force slavery upon the Territory of Kansas, whether it wished it or 
not. Now, if we undertake to protect or maintain slavery in a Terri- 
tory against the wish of the inhabitants, I ask you how many northern 
men are likely to sustain us in it ? At present we have no southern 
men for it that I know of except one. There may be others; but they 
have not thought proper after a del)ate of three months, to state the 
fact. But supjjose they come up and do it, how many men will you get 
from the north ? I hold that it is a political impossibility that we should 
pass such a measure ; and, as I shall presently endeavor to show, noth- 
ing but mischief will result from the attempt. 

But suppose there were nothing in this fourth objection of mine, and 
that Congress should actually pass a law of that sort, how much would 
it be worth in a Territory where the people are thoroughly adverse 
to it and unwilling that the institution should exist or be protected ? If 
you are going to enforce the law, you must send either an army or an 
immense number of officials, and scatter them all over the Territory. 
Gentlemen know now how difficult it is to recover a runaway negro 
from the free States. From some of these States you can only get him 
by the help of an army. It was stated the other day, in a speech by a 
member of the Republican party, who, I suppose, knows — I mean Mr. 
Raymond, who was once Lieutenant Governor of New York — that of 
the runaways who went to the north, not one in five hundred ever was 
recovered ; and yet it is much easier to send a posse or a body of troops 
there to get a single negro at one point and return him, than it would 
be to support an army and protect it over a whole Territory. But, nev- 
ertlieless, suppose you could maintain it there, what then ? Everybody 
on our side of the House admits that when they make a State constitu- 
tion, they have a right to exclude it. Have you, or I, or any other man, 
the least doubt that when such a people made a State constitution they 



(497) 

would make it anti-slavery ? Any community on earth wlio had forced 
upon them a system to which they were adverse would inevitably throw 
it off when they could. What would be the result? Every State 
brought into the Union under these circumstances would not only be a 
free State, byit would probably be abolitionized ; probably strong anti- 
slavery features would be thrown into its constitution. What advan- 
tage is that to us of the South, I ask gentlemen ? We would like to 
have slave States ; they would give us additional strength in the two 
Houses of Congress ; but slave Territories are worth nothing to us — 
they give us no strength. We should like to have slave Territories that 
might be formed into slave States ; but if we can only have them under 
a system which is almost sure to make them germinate into free and 
hostile States, they are of no advantage whatever to us. 

I have now, Mr. President, given some five reasons why, in my judg- 
ment, even if non-intervention had not been right originally, it wonid 
be the true policy now ; but gentlemen say, if it is our right to have 
])rotection, let us insist upon it. I take it for granted that every man 
believes lie has rights wdiich he cannot insist on at all times. No man 
will insist on an abstract, remote sort of right which he can turn to no 
practical advantage, and thereby merely incur very great losses. If a 
man believed that he had a certain valuable property in the moon, 
nobody would expect him to attempt to get at it there either by balloons 
or otherwise. Everybody would regard it as an impossibility, and any 
expenditure of time and money that he made to effect it would be 
regarded as thrown away. I am free to say that, in my judgment, 
there is about as much probability of effecting a thing of that sort as 
there is of getting through Congress, and maintaining, a system of legis- 
lation to protect slavery in Territories tliat are so utterly hostile to it, 
that they make their Legislature act against it, and then to bring them 
in as slaveholding States. One is a political, the other a physical impos- 
sibility. I think we shall lose by the operation ; and this brings me to 
another class of objections. 

If we take this system of congressional intervention for the protection 
of slavery, we must act in opposition to the settled policy of the Demo- 
cratic party for the last ten years. Then you necessarily divide the 
party. The movement will not divide our opponents ; they will all 
stand as they now do, firmly united against us ; but we shall divide our 
own part}^ into two sections, and I beg leave to call the attention of 
Senators to the fact that, on looking over the resolutions adopted in the 
Democratic conventions of the free States— and I have examined all of 
them but one — every single one of them, as far as I know or believe, 
has declared in favor of the Cincinnati platform, and non-intervention. 
So have many of the sonthern States likewise. If we adopt a different 
policy, all these gentlemen must change their ground at once, or be 
driven out of the party. I ask you, Mr. President, can they maintain 
themselves before their opponents under this disadvantage ? Suppose, 
for example, the delegation from Pennsylvania go home from a conven- 
tion w^here the policy of intervention has been adopted : how will their 
opponents meet them ? Their Republican opponents will say to them : 
"you have all been fighting for ten years upon the principle of non- 
intervention, and at your State convention, last March, you passed reso- 
63 



(498) 

lations, without division, unanimously declaring that Congress had no 
power to legislate on the subject of slavery in the Territories ; and that 
it would not he expedient for them to exercise it, if they had it ; you 
went to the national convention, and the slave power have imposed on 
you an intervention plank — a plank by which you will have to legislate 
slavery into and maintain it in the Territories." The}^ will call it, of 
course, a slave code. Will our friends be able to maintain themselves 
advantageously under these circumstances ? I put it to the common 
sense of everybody if that can be expected. I will not say, as a south- 
ern gentleman said to me the other day, who was in favor of a southern 
candidate at Charleston, that if the angel Gabriel was put upon a slave- 
code plank he would be defeated all through the north. I do not know 
anything about what sort of a run angels would make ; but I am clearly 
of the opinion that it would weaken any candidate we run in the north. 
Why ? All men have a pride of opinion ; all men have a regard for 
consistency. If tliis Avere a new question, and no ground had ever been 
taken upon it, it is possible that we might bring up many gentlemen to 
the point of passing a proposition to protect slavery in the Territories ; 
but when they have stood upon non intervention for ten years ; when 
all their conventions have adopted it, 1 ask you i£ it is possible that 
they can be prepared, at this time, to turn right about, and go for inter- 
vention. It does not help the matter at all that this thing is held up in 
futuro. Suppose it be said that " whenever it is necessary, Congress 
must legislate to protect slave property :" the Abolitionists would say 
in this canvass, "' it will be necessary as soon as the presidential election 
is over, if you carry the day." They will say that, of course. Our 
friends, perhaps, may dispute it, and say they think it will be a long 
time before it is necessary ; but that is the argument they will have to 
meet. The Abolitionists will hold up all the bloody slave codes from 
the time of Draco down, and tell the northern people that this is the 
music they have got to face. If we are going to legislate at all, I have 
no doubt upon earth it would be better for us to pass a statute now, 
declaring that slave and all other property should be protected in all the 
Territories of the United States during the territorial condition ; because 
men would see that statute, would know what it meant, and have a 
better chance to defend it. 

But again, Mr. President, it is argued that there are differences of 
opinion on the subject of non-intervention and the meaning of the Cin- 
cinnati platform. \ really do not think there is any difference of opinion 
as far as the action of Congress is concerned. I think no man can read 
that 'platform, or the Nebraska bill, or the speeches on that occasion, 
without seeing that we are all agreed so far as congressional action is 
concerned. I have extracts from the speeches of many southern Sena- 
tors and Representatives upon the occasion of the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, but I do not choose to read them. In the first place, the 
argumentmii ad hominem is not a very convincing one to an intelligent 
mind. In the next place, to show that this was the universal opinion of 
the party then, as I could do in this way, I should have to take up the 
time of the Senate to too great length, and I should also, perhaps, oblige 
gentlemen to make explanations of their positions. But I think it 
abundantly clear that Congress was not to interfere with the subject ; 



(499) 

that the clifFerence of opinion was upon the point after that — what would 
be tlie effect of congressional non-intervention. Some gentlemen said 
tliat the Territories might legislate to protect slavery, but not to prohil)it 
it. Others said they might legislate either to proliibit it or not. This 
question, from necessity, is one that the courts must determine. Suppose 
a law is passed by a Territorial Legislature : who determines its consti- 
tutionality and validity? The courts. Our opinion will not control the 
courts. Suppose the Senate should resolve unanimously that a particu- 
thing was legal and constitutional : the Supreme Court, or any other 
court, would not be bound to adopt it at all. There is, in fact, no dif- 
ference, as far as the action of Congress is required, on the subject. We 
differ as to what the court will decide about the power of a Territory. I, 
for example, believe, and have said again and again that I think the 
court will hold, that a Territorial Legislature has a right to protect prop- 
erty, and cannot legislate against it. I think so. Somebody else enter- 
tains an opposite opinion. It is necessarily a judicial question. 

But again, sir, it is said that the Cincinnati platform, with the doc- 
trine of non-intervention, is construed differently by different people. 
So is the Constitution of the United States ; and yet we have never 
thought proper to make a new Constitution. So is the Bible : the 
churches have divided about it for the last two thousand years or 
more; and yet Providence has not thought proper to favor us with a 
new Bible. Nobody has asked it. Perhaps I am wrong — I believe 
the Abolitionists have said that the times demanded an anti-slavery 
Constitution, an anti-slavery Bible, and an anti-slavery God; and they 
have made for themselves anew constitution in the "higher law," and, 
for aught I know, they may adopt Joe Smith's Mormon Bible. They 
have easily found a divinity in John Brown; and some of them are 
relying, they say, " on him, and him hanged." But I do not find that 
any considerable portion of the Cbristain world asks for a new divin- 
ity or a different Bible, and yet they differ about it. So with regard to 
the Constitution. It turns out, therefore, that the Cincinnati plat- 
form stands in the same position with these other great instruments 
in this respect. 

What has occurred since 1856? I was a member of the convention 
when that platform was adopted at Cincinnati, and it was unanimously 
adopted, and was satisfactory. What has occurred since? I know of 
nothing that is supposed to have any bearing upon it, except the Dred 
Scott decision. If gentlemen say that that ought to be a part of our 
platform, I doubt whether anybody will object. Every Democrat that 
I know of yields to the decisions of the courts on questions of that 
kind. I prefer, though, taking the decision itself to any man's com- 
mentary upon it, just as I would prefer adopting the Bible to the 
views of any commentator. If I should attempt to read in any court 
what somebody said was a former decision, the judges woiild stop me, 
and say, "Give us the decision itself;" because the judges know their 
opinions, and can express them better than anybody else. 

But, Mr. President, I may say that I look upon platforms for candi- 
dates very much as I do the weights that are put upon horses. I 
think the less of a platform you hamper a candidate with, generally, 



(500) 

so 3^ou express your principles clearly, the better; just as the less 
weight you put upon a horse, the better race he runs. I have a great 
many rights that were not in the Cincinnati platform. I do not 
expect to have them all put into it. To get them there, I should have 
to have the Constitution of the United States certainly all there, 
and the Constitution of my own State, and no doubt some other great 
natural rights that are not in either. My friend from Missouri Mr. 
Green) suggests to me the Bible, also. Are we to expect everything to 
be put in ? If we do, I do not know how large we would make it. It 
would be just as absurd as if a man who had a horse that was going 
to run a great race, and on which he had bet largely, should put upon 
his back all the property he had in the shape of kettles, mill-stones, or 
anything else cumbersome. That would be the height of absurdity. 
I tell you further, Mr. President, after w^e get a candidate in the field, 
and hejs running against our adversaries over the way, the very gen- 
tlemen who may now be disposed to quibble, and who want to insist 
on this and that, if they saw that he was hampered and was likely to 
lose support, would be very sorry that he was placed in a false posi- 
tion. My real liking for the Cincinnati platform was, that it had been 
four years before the country, everj'body understood it, and it was not 
necessary to debate it or talk about it further in the canvass. As it con- 
tained all the principles in issue between the parties, I prefered wag- 
ing the fight on it, with the addition only of the Dred Scott decision, 
if gentlemen desired it. 

I know, however, that there are several classes of persons who will 
not agree with me in these views. In the first place, there are some 
gentlemen who are called disunionists per ne ', that is, persons who 
think sound policy requires a dissolution of the Union. I know some 
wdio entertain these views. They are men of ability, intelligence, pub- 
lic spirit, and patriotism. I have no doubt about that. They hon- 
estly believe that this government is a fiiilure. They think this slav- 
ery agitation has been continued to that extent that it has paralyzed 
the govei nment for useful purposes ; that it will grow worse and worse ; 
and that the Union had better be dissolved and a new system of govern- 
ment made. They are honorable men, or many of them, at least, are 
known tome as such. They believe that if the Democratic party were 
destroyed, a great step would be taken in that direction ; and I am 
free to admit it. They suppose, therefore, that by pressing extreme 
views, by having the South to insist, for example, on slave protection 
in Territories, while the North is for non-intervention, we may either 
break up the party or defeat it in the coming election. I shall not 
enter into an argument with such gentlemen as to how far the\^ are 
right. I think they are wrong. It seems to me they are incapable of 
learning by experience. There is one thing they might have learned, 
and that is, that they cannot drive a majority of the Southern people 
into a line of action of that kind. Tbe}^ may by expressing their 
extreme opinions, involve us in difficulties, divide us at the South, and 
weaken our influence in the country. 

I thought, in 1S50, that my section suffered because certain gentle- 
men deemed it proper, very unwisely, in my judgment, to express 



( 501 ) 

these views and divide us at home. Mr. Calhonn made a remark, 
which was reported to me, shortly before liis deatli, which I refer to, 
because, in m}^ judgment, it illustrates the feeling of the South, and, 
as I have alluded to him, I beg leave to say that, having once, in my 
earlier j^ears, in some speech spoken in a manner not kind to him, I 
take great pleasure in saying, on this occasion, that my opinion was 
subsequently changed, and I am satisfied that I did him great injus- 
tice. His course in 1848, on the Clayton compromi.'^e, satisfied me; 
because he agreed to take a measure which he thought fell greatly 
short of our rights, for the sake ol peace and harmony; and his course 
in 1850 satisfied me that he had no ulterior designs against the gov- 
ernment; that he was very anxious, provided it could be kept on the 
line of the Constitution, to preserve it. But, sir, the remark to which 
I allude, was this: after I saw him for the last time — for I believe the 
last conversation I had with him was on the last day he was in the 
Senate, and if I were to repeat it, which it is not necessary that I 
should do, it would only be creditable to him and his views — a gen- 
tlemen, from South Carolina, then a colleague of his, a gentleman with 
whom I was on terms of great intimacy — said in the House one day 
to me in conversation, "last evening, when I was talking to Mr. Cal- 
houn, by his bed-side, giving him my views as to what would be the 
effect of a dissolution of the Union, he stopped me; and he always 
stops me at that point. He said, 'you may be right in your opinions, 
your argument is very plausible. I admit that I cannot answer it, 
but there may come in disturbing causes which would change all this. 
The effect of a dissolution is one of tiie great problems which the 
human mind cannot grasp; all we can say is, that if the North force 
it upon us we must make up our minds to take it.'" That, I think, 
Vv'as substantially his position, that if we could maintain our ecpiality 
and our rights in the Union, we ought to stand by it; but, if forced to 
take the other alternative, we ought to make up our minds to do it. 
I think this illustrates the view of the great majority of the people of 
the South. They have no such blind reverence for the Union, or for 
this government, as to submit to it when their great essential rights 
are invaded ; but they will not in advance of such an emergency, take 
steps to produce its dissolution. 

My ov.'n opinions on that subject have already been sufficiently 
expressed, and there was no part of the speech of the Senator from Mis- 
sissippi yesterday, able and elocjuent as it was, that I heard with more 
pleasure than I did those declarations of his in which he warned gen- 
tlemen on the other side of the effect that would follow their attempt 
to carry out their views. I expressed my opinions early this session ; 
I expressed them in the Fremont contest, and I shall stand upon them; 
and in such a contingency, I doubt whether any gentleman will be 
more zealous, though doubtless many be more able than myself. 

But, sir, the people of the Southern States will not regard it as a 
sufficient reason to break u[) the Democratic party, much less to justify 
revolution, that we are ol)liged to stand upon the old Cincinnati plat- 
form. It was the unanimous feeling of the South, four years ago, and 
of the Democracy of the North, that the Cincinnati platform was right. 



( 502 ) 

Because our convention chooses to adhere to it now, or to adhere to it 
substantially, you cannot induce the majority of the Southern people 
to dissolve the Democratic party; and hence I regret extremely that a 
portion of our friends in the South found it necessary, in their judg- 
ment, to withdraw from the convention. All those gentlemen that 1 
know are men of high honor, courage and ability. I think they made 
a mistake. But, be that as it may, a large majority of the Southern 
delegates, in the proportion of seventy to fifty, remained in the con- 
vention. 

Something is said, I know, about the cotton States withdrawing. I 
have great respect for cotton, and if we are to have a king, I would as 
soon acknowledge that cotton is king as anybody else. But, sir, I can- 
not admit that the men who are planting cotton are necessarily wiser 
or better than those in old Virginia, who are cultivating tobacco and 
wheat, and no cotton at all. Virginia has as much interest in slavery 
and the slave question as the Gulf States. We ought all to act together. 
We ought all to go into the contest and make a common fight. I will 
say, however, though I may be treading on delicate ground, that if I 
even thought statesmanship required a dissolution of the Union, I 
should have a choice as to how it should be effected, looking to future 
results. For example: if we were to go into a common struggle, with 
our Democratic friends in the North aiding us, they would at least see 
that we had done all that men could be expected to do to maintain our 
rights, and they would sympathize, to some extent, with us in any 
action which we might have to take. On the other hand, if we were 
to cut loose from them, make a purely sectional party, say that the 
whole North was hostile, we should, of course, solidify it against us; 
and, I think, with due deference to the opinion of others, it would be 
the most insane policy that could be adopted. If there were ten men 
hostile to me, and ten others whom I have as friends, would it not be 
the height of folly for me to make the whole twenty hostile, and turn 
them all against me? 

But I come, Mr. President, to consider a second class who do not 
agree with me on this question. There are some gentlemen who think 
that these national conventions are mischievous things, and that they 
had better be broken up. Some believe that if the conventions were 
broken up, we should have candidates put out, who might run better. 
I think this is all a mistake. The country is not in the condition in 
which it was in 1824, when there was but one party. Then they could 
dispense with conventions safely, and every man support the candi- 
date of his choice. Now, there is a formidable organization, which, 
four years ago, was almost strong enough to get possession of the gov- 
ernment, which I believe has revolutionary objects in view; and if we 
divide, I think we surrender the government to them. Suppose we 
had a Southern candidate running in the fifteen slaves States, and a 
Northern candidate running. I do not believe we could bring the same 
force to support our man in the South that we could bring to the sup- 
port of one carrying the national Democratic banner. The great argu- 
ment which has been used with us, and the most effective, to bring 
men to our support. North and South, is, that the Democratic party is 



I 503 ) 

one which stands up in thirty-three States, and makes fight every- 
where. Its flag waves from Maine to California, and men are every- 
where marslialed under it. Cut it in two, and many patriots and good 
men, who did not belong to it originally, but who have come into it 
recently, will fall off. I perceive that some of the Republican papers 
said very sagaciously, when they thought the Democracy was broken 
to pieces, that they were to have a triumph, because a great many con- 
servative and timid men supported the Democratic party to preserve 
the Union, and would now leave it. Sir, I do not consider it a reproach 
to any man to say that he is timid in reference to public calamities. 
Those men who are the bravest in mattei^s that concern themselves 
personally, are often the most anxious and careful for their country 
and its rights; and I say it is honorable to any man, no matter what 
his past opinions may have been, that he stands up to protect the great 
interests of his country at the sacrifice of part}' prejudices. I hold, 
then, that those gentlemen who think advantage will result from break- 
ing up the party, if such there be, are unwise. 

There is a third class of persons who wish to press these extreme 
views, not with any purpose to assail the integrity of the government, 
or to break up the party, but who desire simply to use them to 
make capital for particular candidates against other candidates. I 
think they are very unwise in that. If you can onl}' get a candidate 
nominated by going in opposition to about half the States of the Union 
and their views, and by making a platform that drives off particular 
men, are you likely to elect such a candidate? I ask, in all soberness, 
could you possibly so change your platform as to drive off some of 
your candidates, because they are too strong to be beaten otherwise, 
and expect to succeed? I do not believe it; and I say, therefore, that 
of the three classes of men that are opposed to the view I am taking, 
the first are the only wise ones. To the last I would say if they get a 
candidate nominated upon intervention, I greatly fear he would be 
defeated, and if they have separate candidates, I have no doubt they 
will be. I hold, then, that the only wise men of these three classes are 
those who believe the government had better be broken up ; because if 
they can destroy the Democratic party in an}' way, they will have made 
a great stride in that direction. 

Before quitting this branch of the subject, I desire to allude to 
another remark that is often made in the country. It is said somewhat 
tauntingly, I think, by thoughtless Southern men, that as to the North- 
ern States, they cannot be counted upon as Democratic; that no one of 
them is certainly Democratic, and that their views ought not to be 
heard. Mr. President, I tliink it comes with a bad grace from any 
Southern man to throw this out. Upon the old issues upon which the 
Democratic party was built up, the great body of the North would be 
Democratic to-day — there is no doubt about that — and the South might 
not unanimously be so. In the very last contest that turned upon 
these old issues, in 1848, nearly half the South voted for the Whig 
candidate, and the North was divided in about the same proportion. 
At that time the anti-slavery movement, which had previously existed, 
gained such power that our elections since then have turned upon 



( 504 ) 

the slavery question, and they have gained strength, I admit, againsfc 
our friends; but we of the South have no right to boast of our position. 
The only fight has been with the Abolitionists in the last two elections. 
When I say Abolitionists, perhaps I use too strong a term. I mean 
the anti-slavery party, consisting of Abolitionists, Free-Soilers, and 
others. We boast in the South that they have made no inroads among 
us. Why, sir, if an Abolitionist were to come into the p)art of the 
country where I live, or were to manifest himself in any way, the best- 
thing he could do would be to emigrate very rapidly, and if he did not 
carry with him a little tar and feathers he would be quite lucky. Are 
we to boast and plume ourselves on the idea that in fighting the Aboli- 
tionists we can carry the Southern States? If we could not we should 
not be worth anything; but where they exist in the North they are 
formidable, and there they have beaten many of our friends. Those 
friends are fighting this battle, not for their personal rights or to pro- 
tect their own immediate interests. Far from it. If you abolish 
slavery, it would not take the property of any man in the free States. 
I admit that indirectly it might ultimately prejudice their citizens. 
Their interest is not at all what ours is; and yet they have the manli- 
ness to stand up and fight the Abolitionists from year to year. They 
are beaten down from time to time in many of the States. 1 hey give 
up all the honor of representing their people in the Federal councils; 
they lose State place, and power and office; and because they are 
defeated and cut down, we find Southern men taunting them with their 
diminished numbers. Mr. President, when General Scott reached the 
city of Mexico, would it have been just for him to turn around to the 
Palmetto regiment, whicli from its gallantry in many battles had lost 
more men than any one in his army, and say to them : " You are a 
mere skeleton of a regiment; you do not amount to half a regiment; 
tiie greater part of you have been killed or left on the road to die; the 
few of you that have come up here are scarred and maimed and halt; 
your very flag is shot to pieces ; I do not consider you worthy to remain 
in my camp; I want these sleek, full regiments that came in late, and 
did not see the enemy, to make up my army." Or suppose when 
George Washington's army was returning from one of its hard cam- 
paigns, an American had taunted its soldiers with being half clad and 
emaciated and wounded, what would have been thought of liim? I 
hold, sir, with the Senator from Georgia, (Mr. Toombs) that no applause 
and no honors can be too high to be heaped on these men, and, as he 
said, instead of throwing additional burdens on them, by narrowing 
the platform, I would rather widen it, and give them all the aid and 
support possible. I would allow every man to come upon it in this 
fight, which we have against the public enemy. 

Mr. President, in 1854, we 'repealed the Missouri compromise line, 
and a great many of our Northern friends were cut down; and the 
Congress elected in 1855 had, I believe, a majority of two to one against 
the Democracy; but they resolutely w^ent to work and recovered their 
ground, so far as not only to elect Mr. Buchanan in 1856, but to secure 
a majority in Congress. We all know that the discussion on the 
Lecomption bill, and the movements then made, hurt us again. I do 



(505) 

not undertake to say who is to blame for this, but I speak of the fact. 
The consequence was, in the next election the Democratic party in the 
North suffered severely. Take the State of Pennsylvania for example. 
Instead of seventeen members of Congress that our party there elected 
in 1856, we only got two or three in 1858. Our friends have been 
recovering their ground again, and are ready to go into the fight with 
high hopes. Now I ask if it is wise policy for us in the Son ill to seek 
to get the platform ciianged just before another election — a total radi- 
cal change, from non-intervention to intervention? I am free to say 
that I have very great apprehensions that such a thing would lead to 
a defeat, and hence, I would not make the change even if there were 
not other valid objections to it. 

We all know, Mr. President, who were here in this city four or five 
days ago, tliat when the reports came that the secession had occurred 
at Charleston, and it was supposed that the Democratic party was 
broken up and destroyed, that every one who met our Re})ublican 
opponents was struck with their jubilant expression. If they had 
actually carried the election, and got into power, they could not have 
shown more elation. They thought that the Democratic party, which 
they had in vain endeavored to destroy, had killed itself by com- 
mitting political suicide. But when, on Thursday morning last, we 
learned that the convention had adjourned over to meet in Baltimore, 
their faces were very much elongated. I have no doubt they would 
like that we should get into such collisions and divisions as would 
enable them to triumph over us; but I do not think they are destined 
to have this gratification. The Democratic party has great vitality, 
because it stands on the great principles of the Constitution ; it has 
good and true men in every section of the country, and I entertain 
the highest hopes that they will yet come together and make a har- 
monious nomination. 

It is to be regretted exceedingly, however, that we should have these 
debates on immaterial questions. Senators upon this floor are repre- 
sentative men ; and hence when we embark in discussions, and squabble 
over these points which are small in themselves, we tend to divide our 
people at home; and I forebore to embark in this discussion, for this 
reason. The question was connected, also, somewhat with the aspira- 
tions and claims of different presidential candidates, and I felt a 
delicacy in embarking in it; and I do so now only with extreme 
reluctance. As a citizen, I have a right to my opinions. As a Senator, 
I regard myself as a member of a co-ordinate branch which is the 
ec{ual of the President; and, as a Senator, I have no desire to interfere 
with the presidential contest. There are reasons which will strike 
every mind why I ought not to do so, and why I think no Senator 
should. We have a rule of the Senate which requires us in debate to 
avoid personality and personal allusions; and yet, sir, some half a 
dozen perhaps of the Senators here are prominent candidates for the 
presidency ; and if I should interfere to aid one of them, I necessarily 
get up discussions as to the personal merits of these gentlemen. I 
cannot indeed do so without doing violence to my own feelings. I see 
64 



( 506 ) 

at my side the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas) whom I know to be a 
very thorough Democrat, who has fought the Abolitionists for the last 
twelve or fifteen years with as much zeal and effect as any man in 
America; and who has been burnt in effigy perhaps oftener than any 
one else, and who is more thoroughly feared and hated by them than 
any man above ground. Immediately at his side sits the Senator 
from Virginia (Mr. Hunter) with whom I vote as frequently as with 
any man on this floor — a Senator whose statesmanlike qualities have 
made him favorably known to the whole country, and whom every- 
body admits to be worthy of the presidency. Looking further along, 
I find the Senator from Mississippi, (Mr. Davis) whose resolutions I 
have been discussing, in whose company I was defeated in 1850, when 
the compromise bills were passed in opposition to our views, whose 
services to his country in the field and in the civil councils are such 
as to render him emdneutly worthy to be presented by his State. If I 
look further on, I see the Senator from Tennessee, (Mr. Johnson) a 
native of my own State, a gentleman whose talents and energy have 
enabled him to overcome the greatest obstacles, and placed him in the 
front rank of the statesmen of the country. If I look around, I find 
the Senator from Oregon, (Mr. Lane) likewise a native of my own 
State, whose long services to his country on the field of battle and in our 
civil councils render him, too, eminently worthy of this position. Sir, 
so far from endeavoring to tlirow an obstacle in the way of any of 
these gentlemen, I would be proud to aid him. There is nothing that 
either of them could desire that it would not give me sincere gratifi- 
cation to assist them in. There is no personal or political object of 
theirs that I would not like to aid them in. effecting ; and if any one 
of them should receive the nomination, I want no other privilege than 
that of sustaining him. I am ready to march in the ranks and with 
those who go on foot, and wherever the struggle is hardest and the 
toil and danger the greatest. 

Entertaining these views, I have been disposed to abstain as much 
as possible from the discussion of these questions, and I really hope 
that we shall not press them. I think no advantage can grow out of 
it. I greatly fear that I have occupied more of the valuable time of 
the Senate than I intended. I felt, however, that from me, in my posi- 
tion, some explanation was necessary. I think that the gentlemen on 
the other side of the chamber have given us a platform already. We 
shall have to fight them; we had better make up our minds to go into 
the contest,, and meet them on the great issue they tender us. In ten 
days we shall probably have their declaration of war from Chicago, 
and the clash of arms will commence very soon. It is time for us to 
close our ranks. I am ready to fight under that flag and that standard- 
bearer that may be given us. I can adopt any of those platforms that 
were presented at Charleston. I leave all that to our political friends 
assembled in convention. I know that they will present a platform, 
and present a man less objectionable to me than the candidate on the 
other side. I regard them as the deadly political enemies of my section, 
as the enemies of the Constitution of the United States. Let us 
embark in the contest and fight them with closed and serried ranks 



(507) 

on our side. I have spoken only in behalf of the Democratic party, 
of the Constitution, and the country. 

NOTE. 

The-(leb:ite ^^as continued for many day.s. I offered several amendments 
to the series of i-esohitions of Mr. Davis, in the hope that they miglit be 
so changed as to allow the Democracy, both North and South, to come 
together on a common platform, and make ^ united effort to save the country 
from the danger that was impending. 

In the course of the long struggle one of my amendments was adopted. 
Its language was as follows: 

jResolved, That the existing condition of the Territories of the United 
States does not require the intervention of Congress, for the protection of 
property in slaves." -^ 

The vote on this resolution, as an amendment, was yeas 26, noes 23. Its adop- 
tion was extremely distasteful to Mr. Davis and his friends, and before the 
subject was finally disposed of, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, who, as a 
member of Mr. Davis' Committee on Military Affairs, was on good terms 
with him, was induced to move a reconsideration of the vote, by which my 
amendment had been adopted. Mr. Wilson v/as doubtless quite willing to 
assist in cutting the throat of the Democratic party. 

On the vote to reconsider, Mr. Wilson's Republican friends refused to vote 
at all, and even Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania, did likewise, and the vote was 
reconsidered, and the amendment rejected. The resolutions were finally 
passed in such form as to complete the division and destruction of the Demo- 
cratic party as a national organization. After the end of the proceedings, 
in the evening, I well remember tliat my colleague, Governor Bragg, who 
concurred in my views and voted as I did, both in caucus and in the Senate, 
though he declined to take part in the debates, as T then sup}>osed, because 
averse to doing what was disagreeable to Davis and Buchanan, I well 
remember his saying, "Well, Clingman, you have been completely whi]>ped 
out to-day." I replied, that but for the condition into which the country 
was to be precipitated, I was not unwilling to have made the last fight for 
the integrity of the Democratic party. 

The action at Baltimore consummated the destruction of the Democi-atic 
party as a national organization, Mr. Breckinridge being made the candidate 
of the seceders, against Mr. Douglas, who had the endorsement of a majority 
of the convention. The election of Mr. Lincoln was thus rendered a 
certainty. In view of the fact that in the previous contest, Fremont had 
been beaten with difiiculty, and the subsequent increase of strength of the 
Republican party as shown in all the succeeding Northern State elections, it 
seems impossible to believe that any well informed man could fail to see that 
Lincoln's election was a certainty. 

This question forces itself on the mind. Why did any one aid in producing 
this result unless he desired to effect a dissolution of the Union, or the aboli- 
tion of slavery, or thirdly, a civil war between the North and the South ? 
What was the motive, especially of tliose Democratic leaders, who assisted 
in destroying the party ? 

Mr. Buchanan was undoubtedly the most infiuential person, and one of the 
most zealous in consummating the movement. What then was liis motive in 
assisting to destroy the party which had made him President, vinless it would 
agree to abandon the platform on which he had been elected? Was he 



( 508 ) 
» 
then a disunionist! On the contrary, after the division had occurred, when- 
ever it was suggested to him that disunion would be the result, he seemed 
shocked and recoiled from the idea with horror. Had he any otheV adequate 
motive ? 

After the failure of his Kansas policy, early in his administration, the course of 
the Washington " Zhdon'''' satisfied me tliat he intended to break up the Demo- 
cratic National Convention if he coiild do so, but none of the Senators or mem- 
bers to whom I then made the suggCvStion, could be induced to concur in the 
opinion. Afterwards it became, more evident, that he cherished the idea 
that if the party convention could be broken up, then, the country would 
rally around him to save the Union. As no one else seemed to share with 
him in this view, his persistence in entertaining it, can only be accounted for 
upon the principle stated by Watkins Leigh, that when the idea once entered 
a man's brain that he was to be elected President, it was a well settled fact 
in physical science, that no pOAver was known sufficiently potent, to dislodge it. 

Again, Mr. Buchanan was like most timid, insincere men, very malicious, 
and bore an intense liatred to Douglas. Anxiety to defeat him was a most 
powerful motive. 

It is undoubtedly true that after the developments consequent on Lincoln's 
election were made, he did regard disunion as inevitable, and made up his 
mind to accept it as the decree of fate. But at the time when he was most 
actively aiding the early movement in that direction, it does not seem that 
he was actuated by such a purpose. 

Mr. Buchanan's capacity is not generally understood by the public. His 
failure as an executive officer causes him to be underrated in other respects. 
He was not only so insincere as to exem])lify the remark that " Pope was so 
insincere that he took tea by strategem," but he was really possessed of great 
cunning. Intelligent, well informed, and most plausible in manner, his 
powers of deception were very great, and his capacity for personal intrigue 
was extraordinary. In addition to these qualities, he was in a position to use 
very dexterously and effectually the advantages which his official situation 
gave him. Whether the vacant Supreme Judgeship, which he held so long 
suspended, was potent with such men as Caleb Cushing and Daniel S. Dick- 
inson, and thus enabled him to secure their co-operation, is a question for 
speculation. The very fact that no one could suppose that Mr. Buchanan, 
situated as he was, would favor any movement that might even remotely 
endanger the Union, tended to throw all men off their guard, and induced 
them the more readily to join in what he iirged. No man ever seemed to be 
more earnest, indiistrious and indefatigable than he was, and few were more 
successful than he was in securing co-operation. 

Senator Slidell gave a most powerful support to the movement, not onlj^ in 
Washington, but in Charleston, to which city he and Senator Bright went 
during the sitting of the convention. But I have no reason to believe that, 
at that period, he was seeking disunion. On the contrarj^, when I referred to 
it as a probable result of the division of the party, he repelled it, and. in fact, 
seemed to turn away from the idea as one not worthy of consideration. His 
colleague and intimate personal friend, Mr. Benjamin, said to me in the early 
part of the session follow^ing Lincoln's election, that he had been absent from 
home (in the west, I think,) at the time of the presidential election, and that 
on his return to New Orleans imnn^diately after it, he was more surprised than 
he had perhaps ever been in his life, to see the feeling manifested among the 
people. He declared that the most astonishing part of it to him was that 
those who Avere regarded as the least informed, mechanics, laborers and 
others, termed the lower classes, were the most anxious for resistance. They 



(509) 

knew, ill irutl), thai, disgrace was not prndence and that the overthrow of 
the Constitution and the destruction of their social system coukl only hring 
upon them the greatest injury. It is clear, therefore, that Mr. Benjamin did 
not work for the movement with any such view. 

As to Mr. Jefferson Davis, the few conversations I had with him, as well as 
all I heard from others, left me in doubt as to his motives. When his res- 
olutions were first inti'oduced, they were regarded by some as a mere effort 
on his i^art to get ahead of his colleague, Mr. Brown, as the exponent of the 
extreme views of Mississippi. It soon became manifest, however, that further 
purposes were entertained. I recollect that on a certain day in the spring, as 
Ave were walking out of the capitol grounds into Pennsylvania avenue, he 
appealed to me with much earnestness, to join in his movement. He had 
not long previously gotten a lettar from some foolisli man in the North, 
(I think it was Davis, of New York, who had written some of the Jack 
Downing letters) urging that the South should insist on its i-ights, &c. After 
reiterating my objections to his movement, I said: "I think, Mr. Davis, 
even if we all go together into the presidential fight, our adversaries will beat 
us, and thus give us a broad issue to go before our constituents on." He 
replied, with a scornful look, "It has never entered into my mind that they 
can beat us, whether we are united or not." When it is remembered that 
Fremont had nearly been elected in the preceding contest, and that the anti- 
slavery movement had evidently since been gaining strength, it seems singu- 
lar that any one should believe that the Democratic party, divided between 
two candidates, would be in no danger of defeat. Even after the election, it 
was stated to me by Mr. Keitt and others, that Mr. Davis seemed reluctant to 
go with the secession movement. I, therefore, decline under all the circum- 
stances to entertain a decided opinion as to his purposes. 

Another Senator from one of the Cotton States was urging me to join 
them about that time. I said that if we acted together, and made it evident 
that we had done all in our powei- to protect our section in the Union, the 
South would unite for defense, but that, on the other liand, if it should 
appear that we were seeking disunion as a matter of choice, such States as 
North Carolina and Virginia Avould not join in the movement. He replied, 
witli a hauglity air: "We do not expect North Carolina and Virginia to do 
any of the fighting. All we desire is the riglit to march across your territory, 
to get at the yankees." Of course all argument was M'astedon such persons. 

That such a man as Senator Bright, living as he did in Indiana, should have 
desired the secession of the Southern Democracy from him, seems little moi'e 
wise than the e^'olution of the man, who in the top of a tree, sawed off the 
limb on which he was standing. His course and that of such other Northern 
Democrats as Cushing, Dickinson and the like, seems not to be accounted for 
upon any of those principles, which usually influence men of intelligence. It 
appeared sti'auge that such a man as ex-Senator Bayard would consent to 
become president of the seceders convention at Charleston. Possibly such 
gentlemen as these, had so much confidence in Buchanan, Davis, Slidell and 
others, that they, without nnich thought, followed them confidingly. The 
Whigs of the South for many years, with little less folly, adhered to the 
Northern Whigs, who were for doing the very acts that those in the South 
declared would justify revolution. I have observed in war, that soldiers after 
a time, acquired such confidence in their oflicers, that they, without thinking 
for themselves, blindly did whatever they were ordered to do. 

Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Davis and Mr. Slidell were intensely hostile to Mr. 
Douglas pei'sonally, while Mr. Bright had shown for some thne previously, 
jealousy a; ^ dislike to him. The first three were men of sti-ong feelings of 



( -510 ) 

repugnance towards tliose that excited their hostility, and readily became 
bitter personal enemies. And yet it does not seem that, violent as they were, 
they should have been so blinded by hatred and malice, as to regard the grat- 
ification of such feelings as affording an adequate reason to justify them in 
deliberately seeking to destroy their party, and promote the election of such 
an adversary as then stood before them. 



fXOYD'S DISTRIBUTION OF. ARMS IN THE SOUTH. 

During the summer of 1860, 1 happened to be in Washington, subsequently 
fo the adjournment of Congi-ess, and at that time some arms were sent South, 
and it was stated in some of the Northern papers that ray visit had some 
connection with that transaction. In fact, I at that time had no such object 
in view, but as much has since been said of Secretary Floyd's sending arms to 
the South, a statement as to how he come to take that step may possess 
interest. Li the latter part of November, 1859, being in Raleigh, Governor 
Ellis and I had a conversation in reference to the John Brown i-aid into Vir- 
ginia, and the extraordinary manifestations of favor then extended to his 
enterprise. The Governor expressed his regret that there were no arms in 
the State for defensive purposes, and asked me to see the Secretary of War 
and ascQi'tain what was the amount that might be due to North Carolina, and 
get her quota whatever it might be. I also think that during our conversa- 
tion he said that if there were any arms in the State he would not hesitate, 
if an emergency occun-ed, to take them. I may be mistaken as to his 
making this last remark. I told him I would do what I could. 

Accordingly, soon after reaching Washington, I called on Governor Floyd, 
the Secretary of War, and, after stating the case, asked him what arms he 
could send to our State? He said he would enquire, and immediately sent 
for Colonel Craig, the ordnance officer. On his coming into the room the 
matter was explained to him, and he was directed to ascertain what arms, 
under the existing laws, the State of North Carolina was entitled to have. 
The Secretary told me that if t would call in a few days he would have a 
report ready for me. 

On ray seeing hira again, soon after, it was ascertained that not more than 
a few hundred stand of small arms could be sent to North Carolina under 
the existing law. We had a good deal of conversation on the subject of the 
defenceless condition of the State as Avell as of the South generally. At 
length he said: "I can do this, and have been thinking of it. There are a great 
niany arms in the various Northera arsenals, and I can distribute them over the 
different States, wherever there are arsenals suitable for their preservation." 
I urged him to do this, and think I stated to him that this would fully answer 
our purpose, as we would not hesitate to take possession of them if it became 
necessary for defensive pur]>oses. Subsequently he stated to me tliat he had 
ordered that twenty-eight thousand rifles, and a number of muskets, should 
be sent to the arsenal at Fayetteville, North Carolina, as well as a large 
supply to other States. In fact, it subsequently was ascertained, that nothing 
like this number of rifles had been sent to "Fayetteville, or, as Mr. Davis, 
during the war, told me that Ployd had been "cheated by Colonel Craig." 
The larger number sent were old muskets. '* 



(511) 

The fact kuoveu to Colonel Craig that I had previously induced Mr. Davis., 
when in Pierce's cabinet, to send munitions of war to San F^rancisco, and 
subsequently that I had held an interview with Secretary Floyd on the sub- 
ject of the latter distribution of arms in the South, doubtless led him to sup- 
pose that mv journey to Washington had a connection with the forwarding 
arms at that time, and hence the report referred to. 

But this transaction tends to show that important results follow things 
that are in themselves seemingly trivial. Had not Governor Ellis sjwken to 
me on the subject of procuring aims for Xorth Carolina, it is not probable 
that I should ever have spoken to the Secretary of War on the subject. And 
had I not seen Governor Floyd, and brought the matter urgently to his atten- 
tion, it is not likely that he would have made the distribution of the arms. 
It was only after it was ascertained that but a small amount could be donated 
to the States, and in our second interview, that he announced his pui-pose to 
send the arms South. 

To estimate the importance of the consequences that followed this action, 
let these facts be considered: 

It was not until some time in the month of July, 1861, in which the battle 
of Manassas was fought, that the first contract was made by the Confederate 
authorities for the purchase of small arras, and that contract was only for six 
or seven thousand rifles; I say six or seven thousand because the Hon. Charles 
M. Conrad informed me that he had been a member of the Congressional 
committee to investigate the matter, and that that conmiittee had ascertained 
that the lirst contract made had been in that month for the purchase of six 
thousand rifles. But, subsequently to this conversation, General Joseph E. 
Johnston, to whom I mentioned it, said that the number contracted for was 
seven thousand. Whether the one anaount or the other was the exact one is 
not a material question, nor is it important to ascertain when these arms were 
delivered, if they ever were, subsequently obtained by the Confederate 
authorities. This circumstance is important as showing that no arms were 
imported by the Confederate government during the early part of the war. 
in conflrniatifu of this fact it may l)e stated that when I was in Mont- 
gomery, about the middle of May, 18(31, as commissioner from North Caro- 
lina, General Toombs, then Secretary of State, conii)lained of t])e remisness 
of President Davis and his Secretary of War, in not having taken early steps to 
procure anus, but said that they had just lu-eviously moved in the matter, &c. 
In the early part of June following, at Richmond, the convei'sations I had with 
President Davis led me to believe that he had made engagements to obtain 
arms, and General Toombs again said that there must then be a lai-ge 
amount of arms afloat, which were intended for the Confederacy. He made 
this statement to me more than once. And yet, when in the early part of 
July, 1861, I returned to Richmond, General Toombs, with great indigna- 
tion of manner, told me that he intended to resign his position as Secretary of 
State, because he said the President and Secretary of War had deceived him 
in pretending that they had made purchases of arms. He declared with the 
greatest emphasis, that " they had not purchased a gun," and that he would 
not stay in the Cabinet. On more tlian one occasion, previous to this, he had 
complained of their refusing an ofl'er from a responsible party, who agreed to 
deliver, for a small price, flfty thousand Enfield rifles, to be inspected on 
board the ship by a British ordnance oflicer. The Governor of 3Iissouri, 
about the first of August of that year, told me at Richmond, that he would 
have taken steps to obtain arms, but that he had been assured that it was 
unnecessary; that the Confederate government had made aiuple arragements 
to obtain an abundant supply of arms. It is a well known fact, that voluu- 



( 512 ) 

teers by the hundred thousand, were, in the early part of tlie war, kept out of 
it, because there were no arras for theui. 

These circumstances enable us to realize the importance to the Confederacy 
of the movement of Secretary Floyd in sending the arms to the South. As 
soon as Fort Sumter was taken, fearing there might be too much delay, I 
telegraphed Governor Ellis to seize the P^ayetteville arsenal. He did so in 
time to secure the arms there. A portion of them were given to the first 
Xorth Carolina regiment, which fought the battle of J>ig Bethel, where a vic- 
tory was obtained that produced a great impression on the minds of men both 
North and South. 

At the first battle of Manassas, if the troops, Avhich on that day carried 
arms from the North Carolina arsenal, had been absent, the result would most 
probably have been different. As I had as good an opportunity as any one 
else to see what occured on that day, riding as I did over the field on a horse 
General Beauregard was kind enough to lend me, I have heretofore published 
this opinion. 

Had the Virginians been prompt enough to secure the arms at Harper's 
Ferry, (about eighteen thousand stand) their State would have had that many 
additional soldiers. And had the Missourians been smart enough, instead of 
seizing the public buildings in St. Louis, of no value to them, to take the fifty 
thousand stand of arms that P"'loyd sent to them, the result of the war in the 
Mississippi Valley would probably have been very different fi'om what it 
actually was. At the final surrender which took place near Greensboro, 
North Carlina, this conversation occurred. There were about a dozen general 
officers sitting together, and a remark was made somewhat disparaging to 
President Lincoln, whose recent death had become known. Thereupon an 
officer of the highest rank, and of the most undoubted abilities, said: "If we 
had had Lincoln and they had had Davis, we should have subjugated the 
North." There was silence for a few moments, and at length T remarked that 
in that event I had no doubt but that we should have secured our indepen- 
dence. He replied, instantly, " We coidd, during the first year of the war, 
have imported two millions of arms and placed a million of |nen in the field, 
and we would have subjugated the Noith." These statements are referred 
to as evidence of the importance to the Confederacy of arms, and as tending 
to show what great consequences often follow acts that in themselves seem 
of little moment. 



[After the rupture at Baltimore, as the election of Lincoln seemed to be a 
foregone conclusion, I did not think it worth while to take any part in the 
contest. But Mr. Douglas, at Noi'folk, in reply to some questions by Mr. 
Lamb, one of the Breckinridge electors, declared himself in favor of what was 
popularly known as the doctrine of "coercion." Being surprised that he 
should have taken such a position, I M^ent to Kaleigh to be present at the 
delivery of his e.vpected speech. Soon after his arrival I called to see him 
Avith a view of endeavoring to induce him if possible to explain away the 
objectionable statement. 

On my enquiring as to bis prospects in the canvass, he said that he could 
carry great strength in the North, if he had Sonthern support. I expressed 
ray surprise that he should have made such a reply as he did to Mr. Lamb at 
Norfolk. He said that the question had been put suddenly to him while he 



( 513 ) 

was speaking, and that lie liad answered without time for reflection. He 
added that Breckinridge would have to answer the question also. I told him 
that Breckinridge would, I felt cenhdent, make no committal on the subject, 
but that if he were to do so, as he had done, I should denounce him publicly. 
I stated further to Mr. Douglas that while I had till then intended to take no 
part in the contest, yet if he (Mr. Douglas) should, standing on the ground 
he had taken at Norfolk, obtain any considerable vote in the South, that fact 
would encourage Lincoln to resort to force, and hence I should feel it to be 
my duty to canvass against him, and reduce his vote as much as possible. He 
expressed his regret in strong terms, saying that as I had been regarded as a 
friend of his, my opposition would be very injurious to him. I told him that 
unless he could modify his position, I would have no alternative but to take 
ground against him. He s;ud he would think over the matter before he spoke 
next day. 

I then proposed to him that if he and his friends would agree that there 
should be but one Democratic electoral ticket in tlie State, with the under- 
standing that the electoi-s sliould cast the vote of the State either for himself 
or Breckinridge, as it might be found most advisable to defeat Lincoln, then 
I would induce the Breckinridge men to assent to the arrangement. I stated 
that they would be averse to tlie movement at first, but that I would notify 
them that T would, in case they refused, canvass the State against Breckin- 
ridge, and thus throw its vote into the hands of the Bell and Everett party, 
and that I had no doubt but that I could compel the Breckinridge men to 
agree to the arrangement. IMr. Douglas said in response, that if he were to 
enter into this arrangement it would lose him his strength in the North, and 
that, therefore, he must decline it. It subsequently turned out that the only 
votes he did receive in the North were two obtained in New Jersey through 
such an arrangement. 

On the next day, during his speech he was interrupted by Colonel McRae, 
and asked to repeat to the audience what he had said at Norfolk. It was at 
once manifest that this was a concerted affair between him and Colonel McRae, 
and he stated, in strong terms, that if Lincoln were elected he should be inau- 
gurated, and that all persons who might resist should be hanged as "high as 
Haman." He declared that this government could not be regarded as perfect 
in its action until it had hanged a traitor, tfcc. It was clear from this and 
certain other circumstances, that Mr. Douglas was not making the canvass i 
with any hope of being elected himself, but to carry out the views of our | 
adversaries in the North and divide and weaken the South as much as possible.,/' 

During the canvass in North Carolina, while I in my speeches took ground^ 
for resistance to Lincoln, my colleague. Gov. Bragg, and most of the other 
Breckinridge speakers declared strongly for the LTnion. On looking to the 
returns after the election, it appeared that at those points where I spoke there 
had been gains to the Democratic ticket on the preceding August vote, while 
generally at other places we lost ground as compared with the vote in tlie 
State election. There were two reasons for this, the first of which is obvious 
enough. In a contest made as to the comparative unionism of the two parties 
the Breckinridge men ought naturally to have lost ground, because all the 
pronounced disunionists in the South sup])orted that ticket, and hence its 
friends had to struggle against the current on such an issue. 

A second and more potent reason existed in the fact that the people gen- 
erally felt that we had the right side of the issue against the Abolitionists, 
and when an appeal was made directly to their manhood, they Avere ready to 
respond properly. It was in fact owing to sucli feelings that the subsequent 
action took place. 
65 



(514) 

111 North Carolin.'i, however, and iu most of the Southern States, this spec- 
tacle was presented. The sup})orters both of the Douglas and Bell tickets 
charged boldly that the object of running ]5reckii)ridge was to prepare the 
way for a dissohition of the Union. To meet this line of aigument the 
Breckinridge men in most localities strongly denied the charge and endeav- 
ored to surj)ass their oj)ponent8 in declarations of devotion to the Union, It 
thus seemed that if "eulogies on tlie Union could save it," surely it Avas not 
in danger. Such a factitious sentiment in its favor was thus gotten up, and 
so feeble seemed the resistance feeling, that it aj)peared as if the South was 
so divided into factions, and so utterly hel})less in the presence of its enemies, 
that nothing was left for it but unconditional submission. 

This condition appeared so clearly and palpably that the bankers, mer- 
chants and other prominent men in New York, without regard to mere party 
feelings united in a public address to the country, in which it was urged, that 
as the South was divided, distracted and helpless, then was the time for the 
North to unite by common consent, and compel them to submit to the gov- 
ernment of an anti-slavery administration. In substance they declared, 
"Samson is now on his back, tightly bound with new withes and strong 
cords; now let the Philistines be upon him." But that he did burst these 
mighty bands, and arise in strength to meet his adversaries, is the noblest 
exhibition of manliood hitherto presented by the great Caucasian race, that 
has been phiced by Providence at the head of humanity. That they subse- 
quently failed of success was due to an executive iinliecility, which was a fit- 
ting sequel to the manner in which they were i)reci]»itated into the contest, 
divided and Avithout preparation. 

In view of the developments that immediately followed Lincoln's election 
on the evening of my nomination for re-election to the Senate, on being called 
upon for my views, I stated to the caucus that, in my opinion, civil war was 
imminent, as it was ascertained that some of the States Avould secede, and 
that if the movement were confined only to the Cotton States, it was most 
])robable that Lincoln would make Avar upon them, and that we should be 
invoh'ed. Hence I urged that North Carolina should call a convention at 
once, and through it take the position that, if Lincoln, instead of giving proper 
assurances that the rights of our section Avere not to be invaded, should resort 
to coercion against the seceding States, that in such a case Ave would take 
ground against him. I expressed the opinion that by thus laying doAvn pro- 
positions in the nature of an ultimatum the peace of tlie couutiy could be 
maintained. 

Immediately after the meeting of Congress, as it may be seen in the Con- 
gressional Globe, the following debate occui-red, December 4, I860.] 

A. J. Glossbrenner, Esq., the Private Secretary of tlie President of 
the United States, appeared below the bar, and said: Mr. President, 
I am directed by the President of the United States to deliver to tlie 
Senate a message in writing. 

The Vice President, (the message having been delivered into his 
hands.) Is it the pleasure of the Senate that the message be now' read ? 

There being a general acquiescence, the message was read. 

Mr. Clingman. Mr. President, I make the usual motion for print- 
ing the message, and I A\'ill take this occasion to offer a suggestion or 
two upon some of the points embraced in it. 

As to the general tone of the message, Mr. President, everybody will 
say that it is eminently patriotic, and I agree with a great deal that is 



( 515 ) 

in it; but T think it falls short of stating the case that is now before 
the country. Jt is not, for example, merely that a dangerous man has 
been elected to the Presidency of the United States. We know that 
under our complicated system that might very well occur by acci- 
dent, and he be powerless; but I as.sert that the Presidentelect has 
been elected hecause he was known to he a dangerous wan. He avows 
the principle that is known as the " irrepressible conflict." He declares 
that it is the purpose of the North to make war upon my section until 
its social system has been destroyed, and for that he was taken up and 
elected. That declaration of war \a dangerous, because it has been in- 
dorsed by a majority of the votes of the free States in the late election. 
It is this great, remarkable and dangerous fact that has filled my sec- 
tion with alarm and dread for the future. 

The President says that he may be powerless by n^ason of the oppo- 
sition in Congress now; but that is only a temporary relief. Every- 
body knows that the majority which has borne him into the Chair 
can control all the departments of this government. Why, sir, five or 
six of our conservative Senators have already to give place to others 
on the 4th of March ; and if the others do not, it is simply because 
their terms have not expired. Both the Senators from Indiana and 
the Senator from Illinois, (Mr. Douglas) and other gentlemen, would 
be beaten by that same majority, if it were not that their terms have 
time to run. They must, however, be cut down at no distant day. 
Not only that; but if the House of Representatives is divided to some 
little extent, how long will it be so? We all know that New England 
has presented an unbroken front for some time past; and does any 
man doubt that the same organization that elected Abraham Lincoln 
can make a clear majority of both branches of Congress? The efforts 
of the Abolitionists will be directed to the few doubtful districts, and 
they will soon be subjected to their control. So powerful and steady 
is the current of their progress that it will soon overwhelm the entire 
North. In this way they must soon control the President, both Houses 
of Congress, the Supreme Court, and all the officers of the government. 

The result is that a sectional party will wield the entire jwwcr over 
all the departments of the government. Gentlemen say they are shown 
by the vote to be in a minority. That is an aggravation. Under our 
present Federal system, it turns out that a little more than one-third 
of the voters may control all the departments of the government, and 
oppress tyrannically not only the South, but the minority at home. 
I take it for granted that nobody foresaw this state of things when the 
Constitution was made. If the Federal Constitution was out of the 
way, this minority could be resisted; but under the present system — 
and it is that that alarms the South only the more — everybody sees 
that there may be a sectional majority which represents a minority of 
the people, that may absolutely control the whole government. I would 
not consent for my constituents to be governed absolutely even by a 
sectional majority, much less by a minority. The South would bo then 
in the condition of Ireland, represented nominally, but really as pow- 
erless as if the semblance of representation was not given to it at all. 

But this is not the worse view of the case. We are not only to be 



(516) 

governed by a sectional domination which does not respect our rights, 
but by one, the guiding principle of which is hostility to the Southern 
States. It is that, Mr. President, that has alarmed the country; and 
it is idle for gentlemen to talk to us about this thing being done accord- 
ing to the forms of the Constitution. A majority even might begin a 
revolution in that way; you might totally change the whole character 
of the government, in fact, without abolishing its forms. The Roman 
Republic was in fact converted into a grinding despotism by just such 
a process. The most outrageous tyrrany can be perpetrated under all 
the forms of law. 

It is said, however, that some of the States are inclined to be pre- 
cipitate in their preparations for resistance. I do not think so. I 
admit tliat what are called the cotton States may be precipitate as 
compared with my own and some other States, but if you compare 
their action with that of foreign States or nations that have existed 
heretofore you cannot so regard them. Why, sir, I say boldly that if 
the occurrences which have happened in this country for the last fif- 
teen years were done by a foreign nation we should have been invol- 
ved in war. If the property of an American citizen is taken by any 
foreign nation, and upon a demand for redress it is not given up, or 
paid for war follows; and if, instead, the foreign Government legislates 
to protect the wrong-doer, war is inevitable. Everybody knows that 
if the property of a Frenchman, for example, was taken in England, 
and the British Government, instead of making satisfaction, were to 
pass acts of Parliament to jn^otect the wrong-doers, war would be inevi- 
table. 

It would be the case if the same thing occurred between any other 
foreign States. But we are in a vastly worse condition than would be 
the people of any foreign State, because those States of the Union that 
legislate to prevent the recapture of our property are doing it in per- 
fect safety. The proceedings of the old Barbaiy Powers when they 
used te send out cruisers and capture property on the high seas, were 
manly and honorable enterprises compared with these proceedings, 
because they ran the risk of having their towns bombarded; and in 
fact, it was done by the American and British and other governments; 
but here in perfect safety this system of legi^'lation goes on, and there 
is no redress under our system ; and yet, if the State of South Carolina, 
or any other, proposes to act, she is reflected upon. I allude to her 
particularly because she has no representatives on this floor. She does 
not need defense from me or anybody else; and if her representatives 
were here I should not have even said this much. Instead of being 
precipitate, she and the whole South have been wonderfully patient. 
No free people were, I think, ever so much so. 

Gentlemen say that the border States are the States that have most 
reason to complain, and they appeal to those South to wait longer. But, 
Mr. President, what has been the past history of the country in relation 
to this slavery question? We all know that in 1850, when there was 
a great struggle going on to get a fair settlement— a settlement which 
would have placed the South in a proper position with reference to 
the Territories— the border States, much to my regret, were the first 



(517) 

to leave us in the struggle. They abandoned the general cause of the 
South for the right to recover their fugitive slaves. I do not mean to 
say that all their representatives were willing to take this course. I 
know that the two Senators from Virginia, and many others, resisted 
that inadequate settlement; but the border States were responsible 
mainly for it. This fact produced distrust in the States further south, 
because everything seemed to have been given up for that fugitive 
slave law, which is now wortli nothing to anybody. 

Again, Mr. President, when, last winter, tlie State of South (!arolina 
sent her commissioner to Virginia seeking a conference, we had not 
only from the Black Republican press of the North, but from the 
Southern Union press, a great clamor about the Union. Then Vir- 
ginia was called upon not to go into "South Carolina's disunion 
schemes." I thought it very unfortunate then that no action was 
taken by the Southern States upon the question. Then it might not 
have been too late to avert the present dangers. That has passed by, 
and now the condition of South Carolina, as compared to Virginia, is 
just like that of two individuals, both of whom have been insulted 
and kicked for a long while, and one of them says, " I propose now to 
get out of the way;" and the other replies, " If yoii do all these blows 
will fall on me, and I want you to stand by me and divide the torrent 
of obloquy and castigation, so that my load may be the lighter." 

I say, sir, that the people of the United States would not submit for 
one moment to the treatment from a foreign nation that the Southern 
States have suffered at the hands of the North. T have heard it sug- 
gested that the laws to which I have referred ought to be repealed. 
I have no doubt they ought to be. Whether they will be or not, other 
gentlemen can judge better than I ; but the mere repeal of these laws, I 
am free to say, would not, in my opinion, satisfy the section from which 
1 come; because the fugitive slave law is rendered a nullity by the 
action of mobs, independently of this State legislation ; and if, in 
addition, the marshals should be Abolitionists there would be the less 
need of such State legislation. 

The President has said that there ought to be new constitutional 
guarantees. I do not see how any Southern man can make proposi- 
tions. We have petitioned and remonstrated for the last ten years, 
and to no purpose. If gentlemen on the other side have anything to 
propose of a decisive and satisfactory character, I have no doubt the 
section from which I come would be willing to hear it. 1 say to those 
gentlemen in perfect frankness that, in my judgment, not only will a 
number of States secede in the next sixty days, but some of the other 
States are holding on merely to see if proper guarantees can be ob- 
tained. We have in North Carolina only two considerable parties. 
The absolute submissionists are too small to be called a party; but the 
mass of the people consist of those who are for immediate action, and 
and those who are waiting for a few months to see whether any guar- 
antees will be proposed that are sufficient to save our honor and insure 
our safety. 

I give the opinion — gentlemen may take it for what it is worth — 
that unless something of that kind occurs, you will see most of the 



(518) 

Southern States in motion at an early day; and without undertaking 
to advise, I say that, unless some comprehensive plan of that kind be 
adopted, which shall be perfectly satisfactory, in my judgment the 
wisest thing this Congress can do would be to ^ivide the public prop- 
erty fairly, and apportion the public debt I say, sir — and events in 
the course of a few months will determine whether I am right or not 
— in my judgment, unless a decided constitutional guarantees are 
obtained at an early day, it will be best for all sections that a peace- 
able division of the public property should take place. 

I know there are intimations that suffering will fall upon us in 
the South, if we secede. My people are not terrified by any such 
considerations. They have been governed, not by cov/ardice, but by a 
very strong attachment to the Union. They have no fears of the 
future if driven to rely on themselves. The Southern States have 
more territory than all tlie colonies had when they seceded from Great 
Britain^ and a better territory. Taking its position, climate and fer- 
tility into consideration, there is not upon earth a body of territory 
superior to it. Everybody knows it would support a population of 
three hundred millions if it were as densely settled as parts of Europe, 
that from personal observation I know not to be superior to it. The 
Southern States have, too, at this day, four times the population the 
colonies had when the seceded from Great Britain. Their exports to 
the North and to foreign countries were, last year, more than three 
hundred million dollars; and a duty of ten per cent, upon the same 
amount of imports would give $30,000,000 of revenue — twice as much 
as General Jackson's administration spent in its first year. Every- 
body can see, too, how the bringing in of $300,000,000 of imports into 
the Southern ports would enliven business in our seaport towns. I 
have seen, with some satisfaction, also, Mr. President, that the war 
made upon us has benefited certain branches of industry in my State. 
There are manufacturing establishments in North Carolina, the pro- 
prietors of which tell me that they are making fifty per cent, annually 
on their whole capital, and yet cannot supply ojie-tenth of the demands 
for their productions. The result of only ten per cent, duties in ex- 
cluding products from abroad, would give life and impetus to mechan- 
ical and manufacturing industry throughout the entire South, Our 
people understand these things, and they are not afraid of results if 
forced to declare independence. Indeed, I do not see why Northern 
Republicans should wish to continue a connection with us upon any 
terms. They say that our institutions are a disgrace to the polit- 
ical family, which they intend to remove. They declare African 
slavery to be a crime, and that it must be abolished. If we and they 
separate, their consciences will be freed from all responsibility for this 
sin. They want high tarilfs likewise. They may put on five hundred 
per cent., if they choose, upon their own imports, and nobody on our' 
side will complain. They may spend all the money they raise on 
railroads, or opening harbors, or any thing on earth they desire, 
without interference from us; and it does seem to me that if they are 
sincere in their vie»vs, they ought to welcome a separation. 



(519) 

1 confess, Mr. President, that I do not know whether or not! under- 
stand the views of the message exactly on some points. There is some- 
thing said in it about collecting the revenue. I fully agree with the 
President that there is no power or right in this government to 
attempt to coerce a State back into the Union ; but if the State does 
secede, and thus becomes a foreign Slate, it seems to me equally clear 
that you have no right to collect taxes in it. It is not pretended that 
we can collect taxes at British or other foreign ports from commerce 
going in there. If a State of the Union secedes, and becomes a foreign 
State, it cannot be touched. The most offensive form of coercion 
which could be adopted would be that of levying tribute. I have no 
doubt that most of the governments of Europe would release their 
dependencies from the claim on them for protection and for postal 
facilities, &c., if they would just pay the government all the money it 
might think proper to exact. I do not know, sir, whether I am given 
to understand from the message that there is a purpose to continue 
the collection of duties in any contingency ; but if that be the policy, 
I have no doubt some collision may occur. I deprecate it; and hope 
there will be none. If there is to be a separation either of a jmrt or 
the whole of the slaveholding States, I think it better for all parties 
that it should be done peaceably and quietly ; and as far as I have any 
influence, it will be exerted for bringing it about in that way if it 
must come. I do not undertake to say what my own State will do. 
Even if she were not inclined to move, she will soon find a movement 
on her southern border; and so it is with Virginia, and with all the 
Southern States; and in my opinion the movement will notsto}) until 
they all go. I give that opinion because this is an occasion of so 
much moment that no man ought to withhold his opinions. I may 
be wrong; but I speak on the subject frankly, just as I would con- 
verse v/ith any gentleman by the fireside. 

My purpose was not so much to make a s])eech as to state what I 
think is the great difflculty; and that is, that a man has been elected 
because he has been and is hostile to the South. It is this that alarms 
our people; and I am free to say, as I have said on the stump this 
summer, repeatedly, that if that election were not resisted, either now 
or some day not far distant, the Abolitionists would succeed in abol- 
ishing slavery all over the South. 

Now, as to this idea of gentlemen waiting for overt acts. Why, sir, 
if the Fugitive Slave Law had been repealed without these other 
occurrences, it could not have produced half the excitement in the 
country. Men would have said, "We have gotten back very few 
negroes under it; its repeal merely puts us where we were ten years ago." 
Again, if you were to abolish slavery in this District, it would be said, 
"There are only a few thousand slaves here; that is a small matter; are 
you going to disturb this great Union just for the sake of a few thousand 
slaves?" It is said, however, by some persons, that we are to submit 
until revolution is more tolerable than the acts of which we complain. 
That was not the policy of our revolutionary fathers. Nobody sup- 
poses that the tea tax or the stamp tax was an oppressive measure in 
itself. They saw, however, that if they were submitted to, in time 



(520) 

oppression would be practiced; and they wisely resisted at the start. 

Now, sir, I take it for granted that Lincoln would resort to no overt 
acts in the first instance. I cannot conceive that he would have the 
folly to do so. I presume he would be conservative in his declara- 
tions, and I should attach just as much weight to them as I would to 
the soothing words and manner of a man wlio wanted to mount a 
wild horse, and who would not, until he was safely in the saddle, apply 
whip or spur. I take it for granted, when he comes in, he will make 
things as quiet as he can make them at first. I presume the policy 
of the party would be to endeavor to divide the South. They com- 
plain that abolition documents are not circulated there. They wish 
to have an opportunity, by circulating such things as Helper's book, 
of arraying the non-slaveliolders and poor men against the wealthy. 
I have no doubt that would be their leading policy, and they would 
be very quiet about it. They want to get ui) that sort of " free debate" 
which has been put into practice in Texas, according to the Senator 
from New York, for he is reported to have said in one of his speeches 
in the Northwest, alluding to recent distui'bances, to burnings and 
poisonings there, that Texas was excited by "free debate." Well, sir, 
a Senator from Texas told me the other day that a good many of these 
dehaters were hanging up by the trees in that country. I have no 
doubt, also, they would run off slaves faster from the border States, 
and perhaps oblige the slave-owners to send them down further South, 
so as to make some of those States free States; and then, when the 
South was divided to some extent, the overt acts would come, and we 
should have, perhaps, a hard struggle to escai)e destruction. 

_ Tlierefore, I maintain that our true policy is to meet this issue in 
limine ; and I hope it will be done. If we can maintain our personal 
safety, let us hold on to the present government; if not, we must take 
care of ourselves at all hazards. I think this is the feeling that pre- 
vails in North Carolina. I have spoken of there being two parties 
there, but I may say to you, Mr. President, that that party which is for 
immediate action, is gaining strength rapidly. I do not believe there 
has been a mee'ing yet held in the State where there was a collision of 
opinion, that ultra resolutions have not been adopted. This feeling is 
not confined to either of the political parties which made a struggle 
there in the hite elections. The current of resistance is running rapidly 
over the South. It is idle for men to shut their eyes to consequences 
like these. If anything can be done to avert the evil, let those who 
have the power do it. I will not now detain the Senate longer. 

Mr. Crittenden. Mr. President, I regret that the honorable Senator 
from North Carolina has thought proper to make the speech which he 
has just addressed to the Senate. I did hope that we had all come 
together upon this occasion duly impressed with the solemnity of the 
business that would devolve upon us, duly impressed with the great 
dangers that were impending over our country, and especially with 
those dangers which threaten the existeiice of our Union. That was 
the temper in which I hoped we were now assembled. I hope this 
debate will proceed no further. The gentleman has hardly uttered a 
sentiment or an opinion in which I do not disagree with him — hardly 



( 521 ) 

one, sir. I have hopes of the preservation of that Union under which I 
have so long lived; I have hopes that that Union which was the glory 
of our fathers will not become the shame of their children. But I rise 
here now, sir, not for the purpose of making a speech, and I intend to 
stick to my purpose. I wish the gentleman had stuck to his when he 
said he rose not to make a speech. I rise here to express the hope, and 
that alone, that the bad example of the gentleman will not be followed, 
and that we shall not allow ourselves now to be involved in an angry 
debate. We had better not have come here at all if that is our purpose. 
If we have not come here to give a deliberate and a solemn considera- 
tion to the grave questions are thrust upon us, we are not fit for the 
places which we occupy. This Union was established by great sacri- 
fices; this Union is worthy of great sacrifices and great concessions for 
its maintenance; and I trust there is not a Senator here who is not 
willing to yield and to compromise much in order to preserve the 
government and the Union of the country. 

I look forward with dismay and with something like despair to the 
condition of this country when the Union shall be stricken down, and 
we shall be turned loose again to speculate on the policies and on the 
foandation upon which we are to establish governments. I look at it, 
sir, with a fear and trembling that predispose me to the most solemn 
considerations that I am possibly capable of feeling, to search out if it 
be possible, some means for the reconciliation of all the difi'erent sec- 
tions and members of that Union, and see if we cannot again restore 
that harmony and that fraternity and that Union which once existed 
in this country, and which gave so much of blessing and so much of 
benefit to us all. I hope we shall not now engage in any irritating 
or angry debate. Our duties require of us very different dispositions 
of mind ; and I trust none of us will allow ourselves to be irritated or 
provoked, or through any inadvertance involved in any angry or irri- 
tating discussions now. Calm consideration is demanded of us ; a sol- 
emn duty is to be performed ; not invectives to be pronounced ; not 
passions to be aroused; not wrongs to be detailed and aggravated over 
and over again. Let us look to the future; let us look to the present 
only to see what are the dangers and what are remedies; and to appeal, 
for the adoption of these remedies, to the good feeling of every por- 
tion of this House. It is in that way only that we can arrive at a 
peaceable and satisfactory conclusion. 

I will not now allude further to any of the questions which the gen- 
tleman has presented. I shall not discuss the question whether Mr. 
Lincoln's election be or be not a good cause for resistance. I tell you 
there is at least diversity, great diversity of opinion, which should 
make us regard it as a question for consideration. I do not believe 
there is a man in the State of Kentucky — we have parties there, we 
have divisions there — but I do not believe there is a man in Kentucky, 
of any party, that agrees with the gentleman on that question. We 
are all a Union-loving people, and we desire that all these dissensions 
may be healed, and a remedy applied to all the grievances of which 
we have a right to complain, and that there maybe a restoration of 
peace and tranquility. That is what we desire. I hope, judging from 
66 



( 522 ) 

the general character of my friend from North Carolina, and judging 
from the noble character of the State which he represents here — a 
State that has always, while exhibiting the firmness that belongs prop- 
erly to her, carried the olive branch in her hand constantly, and has 
taught peace, harmony, and union, heretofore in this country — I hope 
from him that, on reconsideration and calmer reflection, he will unite 
with us here in as true a spirit of union and devotion to the country 
as any man. 

I am content, sir, that the gentleman's motion for printing the mes- 
sage shall be passed, and I will waive any remarks which I might 
have been disposed otherwise to make on that message. I do not 
agree that there is no power in the President to preserve the Union. 
I will say that now. If we have a Union at all, and if, as the Presi- 
dent thinks, there is no right to secede on the part of any State, (and I 
agree with him in that,) I think there is a right to employ our power 
to preserve the Union. I do not say how we shall apply it, or 
under what circumstances we should apply it. I leave all 
that open. To say that no State has a right to secede, that it is a 
wrong to the Union, and yet that the Union has no right to interpose 
any obstacles to its succession, seems to me to be altogether contra- 
dictory. 

Mr. Clingman. Mr. President, I occup}^ a different position towards 
the distinguished Senator from Kentucky from that which he occu- 
pies toward me. I approve of much that he says, though I regret, of 
course, that he does not agree with me on any of my points. I 
approve of his desire to see these questions harmoniously settled 
— of his wish to preserve the Union on honorable terms; but we 
differ as to the proper mode of doing it. It seems to me that ignoring 
these evils is like talking of health when a man is very ill. You 
must apply remedies that will reach the disease; and I have spoken, 
therefore, frankly my impression ; and I think I shall be sustained by a 
vast majority of the people of my State in what I have now said. He 
is pleased to compliment the State, and I, as one of her representatives 
appreciate it. North Carolina was the last State but one to come into 
the Union ; she hesitated a long while. I think she has shown great 
devotion to it; but whenever it ceases to protect her honor and pro- 
vide for her safety, she will bid it farewell, though she may be reluc- 
tant to do so. The Senator no doubt knows, far better than I do, the 
feeling of Kentucky ; but from what I have seen in all parts of the 
country in which I have been, I think this movement among the peo- 
ple will go on unless a remedy be applied. 

Mr. Crittenden. It is to find that remedy that we are here. 

Mr. Clingman. I think one of the wisest remarks that Mr. Calhoun 
ever made was, that the Union could not be saved by eulogies upon it. 
We have had eulogies upon the Union until they have been produc- 
tive of mischief. The Abolitionists say that "the South cannot be 
kicked out of the Union," and Southern men say amen to it. I do not 
refer to the Senator ; but I mean that the tone and language in the 
South has been calculated to encourage the Abolitionists, and render 
them only the more insolent and aggressive. It was, therefore, I 



( 528 ) 

frankly made the declarations already uttered. I will join the honor- 
able Senator, in good faith, in an effort to avert the evil that threatens 
us, if any fair prospect should be presented. Failing in this I will 
stand by my State in any effort she may find necessary to protect her 
interest and maintain her honor. 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 



At tlie time when Congress met such were the manifestations hi the South 
that it seemed not improbable tliat most, if not all of the slaveholding States 
would secede. This prospect produced a pi-ofound impression upon the 
Northern mind and induced the Republicans to consider the best means of 
counteracting the movement. On meeting Senator CoUamer, of Vermont, 
he said to me in a very kind manner, "You must let us know your terms, for 
we do not want to part with you." A prominent member of the House from 
New York said, " I have no doubt but that Kentucky and the whole South 
will go." The desire for a settlement seemed general among the Northern 
members. Mr. Crittenden moved with a view of settling the difficulties. Kis 
propositions were regaided with much favor. Even Mr. Toombs and Mr. 
Davis said that if his plan were adopted it would be satisfactory. The desire 
for settlement on some such basis seemed to pervade the minds of a majority 
of the Northern Senators. 

The first check to this movement was caused by a speech of Andrew John- 
son, in the Senate, delivered on the 18th and 19th of December. It is doubtful 
if in the history of the world there have been many speeches more effective 
in their consequences. This, however, was not at all owing to the contents 
of the speech itself. On the contrary, the effort was rather a collection of 
commonplace matters, and was, in fact, a mere repetition of newspaper arti-' 
cles of former years against secession, old campaign speeches and arguments, 
with all such things as were best calculated to revive old prejudices against 
South Carolina, &c. He insisted that force should be used against the people 
of the States, whether they were unanimous in seceding or not, just as General 
Washington had put down the whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania. He 
quoted whatever he could lay his hands on that seemed best calculated to get 
up the strongest feeling of opposition against the Southern movement gener- 
ally, &c. hi his manner he was unusually vehement and vindictive, and 
especially denunciatory of " compromises." 

The effect of the speech was, on the contrary, entirely due to the position 
and character of the speaker. The Senators all knew that he was a man not 
at all accustomed to give any attention to the public business of the country 
generally, except so far as he might hope to turn something to his personal 
advantage. In fact, they knew that he was, as a public man, governed mainly 
by one single principle, and that was "Andrew Johnsonism." Though they 
regarded him as a selfish demagogue, yet at the same time, they knew that 
he was a very cunning one. They felt confident that he did not intend to be 
on the unpopular side of any important question, and they looked upon him 
as a good judge of what would be popular. There was among them a gen- 
eral conviction that he would not have taken such a position unless he felt 
confident that he would be sustained at home. In fact, most persons regarded 
him as a very good judge of popular feeling, and the earnestness with which 



( 524 ) 

he spoke made it evident that he expected to be sustained by a majority of 
the people of the South, and in the end be on the winning side, Consequently 
there was at once manifested an entire change in the feelings of the Nortliern 
Senators. It was evident tliat they intended to pause for a time and see how 
far his position would be endorsed in the South. 

Johnson was in several respects a peculiai-, if not a remarkable man, in his 
qualities and career. The fact that it was generally understood that he had 
not enjoyed the advantages of an early education, caused men to estimate his 
efforts greatly above their intiinsic value. . His voice and manner were rather 
disagreeable, and in his speeches themselves there was little original or strik- 
ing. In fact, they were mainly made up of extracts and the opinions of 
others collected with care. He never acquired readiness enough as a speaker 
to take part in the running debates, but his replies were only made after many 
days preparation. 

Persons occasionally praise his messages while President, without noticing 
the differences between his first message, which reminds one so much of Mr. 
Seward, and a powerful later one, which was popularly attributed to the pen 
Judge Black, 

Johnson, however, possessed great industry, energy and perseverence, but 
the driving forces of his mind were selfishness, envy and malice. He was 
eminently of the class that Di-. Johnson would have denominated "a good 
hater," On one occasion Wm. T. Haskell, a brilliant member from Tennes- 
see, was describing certain pei-sons, and among them mentioned his colleague, 
Andrew Johnson, "He is," said he, " a man that if you and he happened, 
while travelling on opposite going railroad trains, to meet at a wayside hotel 
to eat a hasty meal, and if he should look across the table and see that the 
piece of bread by your plate was larger than his, he wovdd hate you as long 
as he lived," Though this remark was an exaggeration, yet as caricatures 
often do, it illustrates a prominent feature. 

Even Johnson's speeches for the Union were not so much characterized by 
love for it, as hatred of its enemies. During the earlier period of his service 
in Congress his speeches contained attacks on West Point as an aristocratic 
institution. After the Mexican war had rendered West Point popular, he 
changed his batteries and leveled them against the Smithsonian Institution; 
and after the new wings of tlie Capitol were erected, he assailed their cost- 
liness. 

While he disliked all those who seemed to have any advantage over him, 
he was rather kind to those below him. Persons best acquainted with him 
say he was the reverse of liberal where his own means were to be used. His 
efforts for the "landless," as manifested in his homestead speeches have been 
mentioned as evidence of his benevolence. If so, howevei", it was the same 
kind of benevolence which in the latter days of the Roman Republic caused 
ambitious men to distribute the public money among the populace, and which 
in modern times induces candidates on the morning of the election to set out 
" liberal treats." 

It is singular that Johnson should so frequently be spoken of in the papers as 
"honest."" I cannot recollect that any President from Wasliington to Buch- 
anan, inclusive, was ever commended especially for his honesty. Men no 
more thought of calling them honest than they do of saying that a lady in 
respectable American society is virtuous. In fact, it would have seemed 
rather an insult to one of the earlier Presidents to raise a question as to whether 
he would have improperly taken money. The circumstance that it was the 
subject of remark that Johnson would not improperly take money, or receive 
bribes, shows how much latterly opinions have changed with respect to public 
men. 



(525 ) 

Some of Johnson's declarations publicly made confirm certain statements 
of his friends, that his purpose after his return to the Senate was to advo- 
cate the repudiation of the entire public debt of the United States upon 
the ground that the bondholders had already received, in the form of interest, 
more than they had originally given to the government. If he held this 
position, his ideas of honesty were limited to a narrow standard certainly. 
A statement made by General Grant in his testimony before a committee of 
the Senate, places Mr. Johnson in a still worse light. General Grant testi- 
fied that after the surrender of the Confederates, President Johnson repeat- 
edly expressed a wish to arrest, try by court martial and execute General 
Lee and other Confederate officers, and that Johnson, on his denying the right 
of such a proceeding, impatiently asked when the time would come when this 
could be done: As General Grant's evidence was made public, and neither 
Johnson nor any of his friends attempted, as far as I know, any denial or 
explanation, there seems no reason to question the accuracy of General Grant's 
statement. 

When it is remembered that in the beginning of the war the United States 
deliberately decided not to regard the Confederates as "re^e/s," but treated 
them as " belligerents," and exchanged prisoners with them, and that they 
had been paroled upon the express stipulation that as long as they obeyed 
the laws of the United States they should be protected in person and pi-operty, 
is it to be supposed that Johnson was really stupid enough to believe that the 
United States would be justified in treating these men as criminals, to be exe- 
cuted under the sentence of a court martial ? And if he was not so stupid, 
was he so blinded by malice, or so anxious to secure the applause of the 
extreme men of the North, as to disregard all the principles of common jus- 
tice among men V Ilis twenty thousand dollar clause, and his repeated and 
earnest declarations against traitors in the early part of his presidency seemed 
to favor the latter idea. 

There has been a good deal of speculation as to his change of position 
towards the close of the first year of his administration. When his previous 
conduct and character are considered the explanation does not seem difficult. 
Though Johnson's perceptions were by no means quick, yet after a time he 
did see, that in spite of his effo'rts to satisfy the views of the body of the 
Republican party in the North, he had failed to do so. He realized the fact 
that they had taken him up for the Vice-Presidency merely to aid their own 
purposes, and that however willing they might be to make use of him, they 
neither respected him nor intended to trust him further. As a selfish, ambi- 
tious man he resented this, and at once sought to be revenged on them, and 
at the same time advance himself. Nothing was more natural, therefore, 
than that he should be willing to make favor with their opponents, even 
though they might be men whom he so vehemently denounced as aristocrats 
and rebels. 

A story of Scotch history is mentioned to this effect. When, during the 
civil wars of Scotland, Bruce was fighting under the banner of King Edward, 
in one of the battles, while fighting under the eye of the King, Bruce dis- 
tinguished himself by his valor, and by slaughtering divers of the enemy. 
When, after the victory was won, they were all assembled at the King's 
dinner table, Edward observed that Bruce had not taken time to wash his 

hands, and said in an undertone to one near him, "Look at that d d Scot; 

see how he eats the blood of his countrymen." Subsequently this remark 
was mentioned to Bruce, and in the next battle he fought so differently that 
when again they met at the dinner table, Edward said, "My lord, you eat 
with clean hands to-day." If Johnson had possessed Bruce's talent, or even 



( 526 ) 

average administrative abilities, with courage, lie might in 1866 have won a 
victory as decided as that of Bannockburn, 

It may be remembered that in 1856 Mr. Filhnore, at Albany, said in a 
speech, (I quote from memory, but substantially) : " It would be folly and 
madness to suppose that our Southern brethren would consent to be governed 
by such a chief magistrate as Fremont. If the matter were reversed we would 
not submit for one moment, and if you think our Southerii brethren are not 
as sensitive and as tenacious of their honor as we are you are mistaken." 

This speech expresses the feeling of the higher toned Northern men, and 
hence they have more respect for Confederates than they have- for Southern 
Union men. Even those who lived in the border States, which did not 
secede, because the contest was in fact urged against all the slaveholding 
States, are not held in as much favor as those residing in the old free States. 
Boutwell's declaration that no man, who had been for the last seventy years 
bronglit up under the shadow of slavery, could praise the Union without 
being a hypocrite, was the expression of a sentiment that underlies the feel- 
ings of all the extreme anti-slavery men in the North. 

It must be admitted that Johnson probably did as much to cause the war 
as any one man, and was entitled to the thanks of those who profited by it, 
however little credit they may give to his motives. His course, too, shows 
how much a man of only average intellect may be able to accomplish by 
devoting his powers industriously and energetically to the promotion of his 
own advancement. 



PRESIDENT BUCHANAN. 

With the progress of the session Mr. Buchanan's position became more and 
more perplexing. He had early, it seemed, arrived at the conclusion that the 
dissolution of the Union was a settled thing, and that under the decree of 
fate he was its last President. As evidence of the condition of his mind, this 
occurrence may be worth repeating. About the middle of December, 1 had 
occasion to see the Secretary of the Interior on some official business. On 
my entering the room, Mr. Thompson said to me, "Clingman, I am glad you 
have called, for I intended presently to go up to the Senate to see you. I 
have been appointed a commissioner by the State of Mississippi to go down 
to North Carolina to get your State to secede, and I wished to talk with you 
about your Legislature before I start down in the morning to Raleigh, and 
to learn what you think of my chance of success." I said to him, "I did not 
know that you had resigned." He answered, " Oh, no, I have not resigned." 
"Then," I replied, "I suppose you resign in the morning." "No," he 
answered, " I do not intend to resign, for Mr. Buchanan wished us all to hold 
on, and go out with him on the fourth of March." "But," said I, "does Mr. 
Buchanan know for what purpose you are going to North Carolina ?" "Cer- 
tainly," he said " he knows my object." Being surprised by this statement, 
I told Mr. Thompson that Mr. Buchanan was probai)ly so much perplexed by 
his situation that he had not fully considered the matter, and that as he was 
already involved in difficulty, we ought not to add to his burdens; and then 
suggested to Mr. Thompson that he had better see Mr, Buchanan again, and 
by way of inducing him to think the matter over, mention what I had been 
saying to him, Mr. Thompson said, "Well, I can do so, but I think he fully 
understands it." 



(527) 

In the evening I met Mr. Thompson at a small social partj^, and as soon as 
I approached him, he said, " I knew I conld not be mistaken. I told Mr. 
Buchanan all you said, and he told me that he wished me to go, and hoped I 
might succeed." I could not help exclaiming, " Was there ever befoi-e any 
potentate who sent out his own cabinet ministers to excite an instxrrection 
against his government !" The fact tliat Mr. Thompson did go on the errand, 
and had a public reception before the Legislature, and returned to his position 
in the cabinet, is known, but this incident serves to recall it. During that 
session I saw little of Mr. Buchanan, but I was satisfied from the statements 
of those most intimate with him, that he regarded the dissolution of the Union 
as a settled matter. 

Anderson's seizure of B^'ort Sumter suddenly involved him in great per- 
plexity and distress. Of course it was demanded of him that he should restore 
the status, as he had been pledged to preserve it. The clique who had aided 
him in breaking up the Democratic party, the leaders of which M'ere Messrs. 
Slidell, Davis & Co., were especially ui'gent on him to order back Anderson. 
Though he admitted the obligation, he was afraid to comply. Keitt said to 
me, " When we urge him, the old fellow almost cries, and says if lie does it 
they will burn his house in Wheatland." After keeping him foi- awhile thus 
in the greatest torture, finding tliat their efforts to move him were unavailing, 
they abandoned and denounced him in terms of extreme bitterness. When 
the Southern members left the Cabinet he found a partial relief by leaning 
further towards the North. 



GENERAL SCOTT. 

During the winter General Scott came to Washington. Notwithstanding 
my opposition to him as a presidential candidate, our relations were cordial, 
and he seemed only to remember my speeches in his defense, when he was 
persecuted by Polk and JVIarcy, while in Mexico. 

Finding his card one evening on my return from the Senate, I called to see 
him at Wormley's. Our intervieAV lasted for an hour or more, and he 
expressed his views at length on the situation. He said that he was in favor 
of merely blockading the seceding States, and thus starving them into sub- 
mission. He declared with much confidence that he knew exactly their pres- 
ent situation, and that they then had only enough provisions to last them for 
six weeks. But, he added, that in spite of any blockade the government 
could keep up, they would bji" means of the Mississippi river, obtain provisions 
enough to last them until June, and that then they Avould be compelled to 
submit. He said, however, " I am not going to let the North have its way 
entirely. I think the North has been a little in the wrong in this matter, and 
I shall say to them you must let the South have the Missouri compromise back 
again." 

It seemed very singular then that General Scott should not have known that 
the Southern States, as a whole, produced a larger amount of provisions tlian 
the Northern ones did. In fact, it was afterwards made manifest that with 
a large part of their able bodied men engaged in war, it was necessary that 
the Federal armies should destroy as much of the provisions as possible. 

General Scott also went on to state that as the excitement of fighting kept 
up rebellion, if he were permitted to direct the councils of the United States, 
there should be no fighting on land. He even said that he would abandon 



( 528) 

Washington City rather than fight, and retreat North in the expectation that 
the rebellion, for want of excitement, would thus die ont of itself. At that 
particular time he seemed to share in such views as Mr. Seward expressed in 
his speech, when he said that in a few years after the eccentric secession 
movements had run their course, he was in favor of having a convention 
called. He, as well as some others, seemed to believe that the South, like 
the prodigal son, would after a while return for shelter to the Union. It was 
so often asserted in Nortliern papers that the South would perish if the North 
did not support it, that he and General Scott seemed singularly enough to 
have fallen into the delusion. 

To counteract such imju-essions, if possible, and impress men with the idea 
that the war once begun would not be confined within such narrow limits, 
but must become a great one, the following speech was made:] 



SPEECH 

ON THE STATE OF THE UNION, DELIVERED IN THE SENATE 
OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 4, 1861. 

The Senate having under consideration the motion to print extra copies of the 
President's message, transmitting the resolutions of the Legislature of Virginia — 

Mr. Clingman said: 

Mr. President: After the very interesting occurrence which lias 
just taken place, it is difficult for me to address the Senate as I would 
wish to do. It is not my purpose, to-day, to attempt anything like an 
elaborate speech upon the questions that have been so much debated. 
The whole country so thoroughly understands them, that that is now 
unnecessary. I shall rather direct my remarks to some of the prac- 
tical questions which are daily" presented, for the phase of things is 
constantly changing, and new issues are continually coming up. The 
message of the President is commendable in its spirit and temper, 
whatever gentlemen may think of its specific recommendations. 
. I have, myself, regularly voted with the honorable Senator from Ken- 
tucky, (Mr. Crittenden) for his proposition to compromise existing diffi- 
culties; and I shall continue to vote for any measure that may improve 
the existing status, whether it, in my judgment, be all that the South 
is entitled to ask or not, leaving to my constituents and other Southern 
States the right to determine how far it satisfies them. But I have 
felt all the time, that unless some movement came from the other side 
of the chamber, or was at least taken up by them, any effort on our 
part would be futile. Even though every Democratic member should 
vote for a proposition, and that should chance to make a majority, yet 
we could not here pass a proposition for an amendment to the Consti- 
tution by the necessary "two-thirds vote, nor carry any proposition 
through the House of Representatives, much less cause its adoption by 
the free States. 

The whole country looked to the speech of the honorable Senator 
from New York (Mr. Seward) made some two weeks since, in the hope 



(529) 

that it might present a basis for adjustment. Though that speech was 
conciliatory in its tone, in its practical recommendations it failed to 
meet, I am sorry to say, the anticipations of the people of the South. 
I understood him only to say, in substance, that he was willing, in the 
first place, to provide that slavery never should be interfered with in 
the States, a point about which no great anxiety is felt at this time; 
next, that he was willing that that provision of the Constitution 
which relates to the return of fugitive slaves should be made a per- 
manent and irrepealable one; (that is a provision which heretofore has 
been, in fact, very inefficient.) But, upon the great question of the 
territories, I understood him to say that he would be disposed to vote 
for the proposition of the honorable Senator from Minnesota (Mr. 
Rice) provided there were a repeal of the existing organic laws, if it 
were not that the proposition of that Senator, making arrangements 
for the future division of the States, was, in his judgment, unconsti- 
tutional ; and if that division did not take place, the mischief would 
be greater than that under which we now labor. 

In other words — and I do not wish to do injustice to the Senator 
from New York — I understood him to state three formidable objections 
to that proposition. First, requiring the repeal of the organic laws, 
by which l4:)resume, he meant that the New Mexican slave code should 
be repealed ; and even if this were done, there stood a constitutional 
objection which he cannot get over, and if it were modified so as to 
provide that these States are to be permanent, then he holds they will 
be so vast that they will bring greater mischief on the country than it 
is already laboring under. Upon other points, I do the Senator the 
justice to say that he eulogized the Union handsomely, and showed 
that it might be productive of great mischief to dissolve it; and he 
also declared that, after this eccentric secession movement had come to 
an end, one, two or three years hence, he would be disposed to see a con- 
vention called to ame-nd the Constitution. It struck me that the posi- 
tion of the honorable Senator on the present crisis was like that of a 
man who, when a city was on fire and the flames were spreading far 
and wide, instead of advising means to stop the fire immediately, 
should enter into an elaborate speech upon the inexpediency and mis- 
chief of having a city burnt, and suggests that when the heat and 
fur}^ of the conflagration had come to an end, it might be well to have 
an assemblage of the people and see if there could not be made some 
provision to prevent similar evils. 

Mr. Seward. The honorable Senator from North Carolina in endeav- 
oring to state my positions, has perhaps come as near to accuracy as 
one standing in his position would be apt to understand them. If he 
will allow me, I wish barely to correct him in one or two points. I 
require the repeal, not of the laws of New Mexico, but of all the organic 
laws of all the Territories of the United States that were to be created 
into States, according to the proposition of the Senator from Minnesota 
(Mr. Rice) to organize States. I then stated that I did not see how 
provision could constitutionally be made at this time which would 
secure a proper subdivision of two such vast States at proper times, and 
that it seemed to me the embarrassments that would result if this were 
67 



(530) 

not done would be as great as the advantages to be derived from 
adopting the measure. There is not much misunderstanding about 
that. 

When the honorable Senator says I suggested a national convention, 
he means to state the proposition fairly, but gives it the effect of a 
proposition for a national convention one, two, or three years after 
these secession movements could have been arrested. So I understood 
him. What I said was, when these erratic movements of secession or 
dissolution shall have been arrested one year, two years, or three years 
hence; that is, whenever arrested within one year, and supposing that 
the disunionists might require more than one, I stated two, three, just 
so long — meaing just so long as the seceding States should require, 
before being ready to go into convention — as that, I could wait in order 
to have a proper consultation whether any of the States have such 
grievances as required relief by amendments of the Constitution. 

Mr. Clingman. Mr. President, I am very happy to afford the hon- 
orable Senator from New York an opportunity of making this expla- 
ation. I did not greatly misunderstand his position, though I may 
not have been felicitous in stating it. My purpose was to call the atten- 
tion of the honorable Senator to the present emergency, with a view of 
showing him tliat the remedy which he indicated would not reach the 
case. I greatly fear, sir, that the Senator from New York, and gentle- 
men on that side of the Chamber, if they are candid in stating their 
impressions, and I do not question their candor — altogether misunder- 
stand thfe nature of this movement. Before speaking directly to those 
points to which I wish to call the attention of Senators, if they will 
pardon me, I will endeavor to state, in as few plain sentences as I can 
command, what I deem it to be that is now operating on the mind of 
the Southern States, and driving them into resistance. 

The honorable Senator from New York, in one of his speeches last 
fall in the Northwest, said that the government of the United States 
had been, in 1820, diverted from its former course, and thrown into a 
wrong direction; in other words, that, for forty years past, it was mov- 
ing upon an improper track, and that its course was now to be essen- 
tially changed. Well, sir, during that time our government has been 
administered by Monroe and John Quincy Adams, by Jackson and Van 
Buren, by Harrison and Tyler, by Polk and Taylor, and by Fillmore, 
Pearce and Buchanan. During these forty years, therefore, adminis- 
tered in that way, the honorable Senator and those who act with him 
hold that the government has been wrong, and they now propose to 
reverse its action. Wrong in what respect? Why, in admitting, by 
the act of 1820, that the Southern States were entitled to go with their 
property into a portion of the public territory. The whole purpose, as 
I understand it, and as the people of the South understand it, of this 
Republican movement is to produce a new condition of things. They 
say, in effect, "you of the South are not to have the influence or the priv- 
ileges of the government that you heretofore had." It cannot be pre- 
tended that, during this period, we have had an undue power over the 
administration, for the presidential office has been fairly divided 
between the sections; and for the last twelve years, during which the 



(531) 

sectional troubles have been aggravated, it has been entirely in the 
hands of Northern men. I say that the whole purport of the move- 
ment, as understood at the South, is this: "Your institutions are not 
equal to ours, and you must accept an inferior position under the 
government." I am free to say, sir, even if they menaced us with no 
practical wrong, in my judgment, such a policy would justify resist- 
ance; for I know of no nation, no community, that ever consented to 
accept an inferior position, without, in the end, being ruined. 

But the practical measures which these gentlemen propose are, in 
my judgment, in the highest degree dangerous. Look, Mr. President, 
over the Southern country, and ask yourself what would be the greatest 
injury that could be done to it ? It would not be the establishment of a 
monarchy, or a military despotism, because we know that monarchies 
and military despotisms often afford a high degree of security and civil 
liberty to those subject to them. The greatest possible injury would 
be to liberate the slaves, and leave them as free negroes in those com- 
munities. It is sometimes said that they are worth $4,000,000,000 in 
money. This, I suppose, is true; but that is only a portion of the 
pecuniary loss, if we are deprived of them. In the North, for exam- 
ple, if the horses and working cattle were removed, in addition to this 
loss, other property, such as vehicles and working utensils, the lands 
themselves would be rendered valueless to a great extent; and so, in 
fact, if you were to liberate the slaves of the South, so great would be 
the loss that financial ruin would be inevitable. And yet, sir, this is 
not the greatest evil. It is that social destruction of society by infus- 
ing into it a large free negro population that is most dreaded. North- 
ern gentlemen may realize the evil, perhaps, by considering this case, 
which I put to them. The negroes of the South are, in most of the 
States, worth more than the lands. Suppose there was a proposition 
now to abolish the land titles through the free States, that, if adopted, 
would produce immense mischief; but, in additition, suppose there 
were to be transferred to those States a free negro population, equal to 
half their own, or, as they have eighteen million of people, turn loose 
among them a population equal to nine million free blacks, and that 
accompanied with the destruction of the land titles and abolition of 
the landed property ; would not the people of those States at once rise 
in rebellion against such measures? 

The British newspapers seem to be at a loss to account for the excite- 
ment and revolution prevailing in this country. It is very natural that 
they should not understand it, because they draw their ideas altogether 
from opinions expressed in the North, which are unjust to our section, 
and partly, also, from the condition of things prevailing in Europe. 
There, revolutions do not occur, except from extreme physical suffer- 
ing. The consequence was, that Great Britain, before our Revolution, 
could not understand that our people would make a revolution 
upon what Mr. Webster declared was a mere preamble — a mere asser- 
tion of the right of Great Britain to tax us ; and they never did realize, 
until the war had actually begun, that we would fight merely to escape 
a contemptible tea-tax of three cents a pound. So, seeing that the 
United States is one of the most prosperous countries on the earth, 



(532) 

they do not seem to realize the idea that we should go to war upon a 
mere question of right, before actual suffering had begun. Now, Mr. 
President, our slave property exceeds the national debt of England in 
value. How long could a ministry stand that was for the abolition of 
that national debt? Remember, too, that the population of the Brit- 
ish Isles is three times as great as ours; and it would have to be 
increased three-fold to make the losses there proportionately as great as 
those the abolition of slavery would inflict upon us. 

But again, sir, this is only a partial statement of the case. 

In England they are very hostile to a Catholic monarch. If there 
were a Catholic monarch on the throne, it might produce a revolution. 
But suppose England were united with a country like France, greater 
in population ; and that that country had the power to impose a Catli- 
lic monarch on England against the wish and feeling of the entire 
body of the people in the British Isles; and that it was known that 
monarch favored the abolition of the national debt; does any man 
doubt that the British Isles would be in a blaze of revolution ? And 
yet, sir, that is not as strong a case as that which is now presented to 
the South. 

I am told, however, by gentlemen, with a great deal of seeming plaus- 
ibility, that this is a condition of things that cannot be carried out; that, 
though Mr. Lincoln may have said that the war must never cease 
until slavery is abolished, and that he hoped during his lifetime to see 
this result produced, yet, under the existing Constitution, he will not 
be able to efl'ect it ; and we are told that we ought to wait, at least, for 
overt acts. Now, sir, when an honorable Senator tells me, for exam- 
j)le, that he stands upon tlie Georgia platform, and that he is ready to 
resist its violation, I give him credit for the utmost sincerity; but I 
tell you, Mr. President, as a Kentuckian, as one who represents a con- 
servative and border State, I do not believe, if we submitted now to 
this election, that those overt acts would be resisted. Take, for exam- 
pie, the Fugitive Slave Law. If it were repealed twelve months hence, 
it might be said that this law violated grossly Northern sentiment; 
that it was very inefficient; that we did not recover more slaves under 
it than we did under the old law; that we would be simply thrown 
back to where we were in 1850 ; that the border States, being those 
most interested, ought to be the first to move, and no resistance would 
in fact be made. 

Secondly. Suppose the Wilmot proviso, or the exclusion of slavery 
from the Territories, was adopted: It would be said, that this was 
what had been often done; it had been repeatedly passed, and even 
sanctioned by Southern men, and that in fact slavery never would go 
into the Territorries; that this right was a mere abstraction, and the 
question would be asked, " Will you dissolve the glorious Union for a 
mere abstraction?" I do not think there would be resistance by the 
Southern people after they had been demoralized by submission to 
Lincoln. 

Thirdly. Suppose slavery were abolished in this district, it would 
doubtless be done with compensation to the owners. The people of 
the North would not object, of course, to paying a small amount for 



(533) 

that purpose, and those who are favorable to a high tariff might be 
very willing to make that expenditure. Even now, sir, the leading 
Republican journals are discussing the propriet}' of buying all the 
slaves in Maryland, in your State, sir, and in Missouri and Delaware, 
and thereby making them free. This proposition finds favor. If, 
therefore, slavery in this district were abolished in that way, it would 
be said, "what right has South Carolina, or North Carolina, or any 
other State to object?" While these things were going on, you would 
see a division to some extent created in the South. There are, in all 
communities, discontented elements; there are everywhere men who 
are ready for a change and ripe for revolution. So powerful is this 
element in most countries in the world, the people have to be kept 
down b}^ force. There is, perhaps, not a country in Europe where 
there would not be a revolution every ten years if it were not for the 
arms and power of the government. But when a government under- 
takes to foment revolution, it is omnipotent; and I have no doubt 
that, with all the patronage and all the power which a Republican 
President could bring to his aid, with a free post-office distribution of 
abolition pamphlets, you would see a powerful division in portions of 
the South. In the meantime, the forts and arsenals could all be well 
occupied and strengthened, and all the public arms removed from the 
Southern States. Last winter, before these difficulties happened, when 
Mr. Floyd made an order directing the removal of arms from the 
Northern to tlie Southern States, though he removed less than half of 
them, he was vehemently denounced for it. You are too well read in 
history not to remember that Carthage was destroyed because she per- 
mitted the Romans, under a promise of good treatment, to remove all 
her public arms; and if the South, in that condition, with additional 
armaments in all the forts, with some division among our people, and 
threatened with negro insurrection, and deprived of all share in the 
public arms, were then to resist more serious aggressions, we should 
fight under great disadvantages, and, perhaps, if not subdued, have a 
long and bloody struggle before us. 

I say, therefore, to the honorable Senator from Kentucky, in all sin- 
cerity, that, in my judgment, the issue which his State and mine have 
to determine is, whether th^Te shall be a manly resistance now, or 
whether our States shall become free negro communities. It is my 
deliberate judgment that, if this issue had met with no resistance, the 
latter alternative would have been the result. But, sir, six States have 
resisted, and are out of the Union, and the seventh, Texas, has prob- 
ably gone out during the past week. There are causes in operation 
which will inevitably, too, if they are not arrested, drive out other 
slave States. In North Carolina, in Kentucky, and in Virginia, for 
example, a large number of the people now are waiting to see if there 
can be any proper adjustment. If it fails — if some such scheme as the 
honorable Senator from Kentucky has offered, is not adopted, a large 
and powerful body of conservative men will at once go to the side of 
the secessionists. Even if that does not carry out those States, there 
is one other contingency, urgent and pressing, which will do it. Your 
State, sir, has determined, by an almost unanimous vote of her Legis- 



(534) 

lature — and so has Virginia — that any attempt to coerce the seceding 
States should be resisted by force. True, gentlemen say they are not 
for coercion, but they are for enforcing the laws and collecting the 
revenue. I will not enter into an argument to prove to any Senator 
that this is coercion. If I were met on the highway by a man, with 
a pistol in hand, and he should say that he had no right to rob me, 
but that he meant to take my money, and would use force to accom- 
plish his purpose, I should not enter into an argument with that man 
to convince him that this was robbery. So, when honorable Senators 
tell me that they are for enforcing the laws, I will not argue that this 
is coercion. All that Great Britain ever demanded in the Revolution 
was, that the colonies should obey the acts of Parliament, and pay 
such taxes as she imposed; and there was no day, during that long 
struggle, when, if George Washington and his compatriots had agreed 
to pay the taxes and obey the acts of Parliament, that the British 
armies would not have been v/ithdrawn. 

This is the only sort of coercion that is ever used among civilized 
nations. Great Britain, France, Russia, or any other civilized country 
does not send out armies to shoot down peaceable, obedient men. All 
they require is, that the laws should be obeyed and the taxes paid. 
This idea of sending armies to kill people who are obedient prevails 
only among savages. It is done in Africa, where one negro commu- 
nity turns out and destroys another. It was the mode of enforcement 
used among the aborigines of this country, when one Indian tribe 
went out and destroyed another. Therefore, when honorable Senators 
tell me that they are not for coercion, but they are for enforcing the 
laws, I understand them as simply saying that they are civilized men, 
and mean to resort to that process which prevails in civilized nations, 
and not among savages. 

They suppose, Mr. President, that they will be able to have a little 
war; and I have been astonished, in conversing even with Senators, to 
say nothing of the newspapers, fo find that the idea prevailed that you 
could have a small war, confined to the blockading of a few ports, and 
that it would stop there. At an early day of this session, my attention 
was called to a plan, coming from a distinguished source, in which the 
opinion was maintained that there were not at that time, in several of 
the planting States, provisions enough to support the people for two 
months; and that certainly, with all they could get, by June they 
would be starved out and brought to terms of submission by a simple 
blockading of their ports. I was astonished that such an idea should 
have been entertained in the quarter from which it came. Why, sir, 
everybody familiar with the South knows that those States have ample 
means of living until the next crop is produced. 

If you could enforce a strict blockade, there is no country on the 
earth that it would injure so little as the South. All thai is made in 
the United States can be produced there in the greatest abundance, as 
far as agriculture is concerned, and we might manufacture everything 
on earth that is needed; and if 'the whole cotton crop were detained 
at home, it would not, in a material degree, affect our ultimate pros- 
perity. I say that, if the $200,000,000 worth of cotton which is 



(535) 

annnallj^ sent from the slave States, were kept there, or never pro- 
duced, we might still be one of the most prosperous countries on earth ; 
but how would it be with Europe and the North ? Can they do without 
cotton ? 

It was said, boastingly, at an early stage of the session, that King 
Cotton was dethroned. There never was a time when that monarch 
seemed to be, in fact, so powerful. When this panic began, and all 
other kinds of property fell, cotton rose rapidly. The monarch had 
but to waive his scepter and the bankers of Europe opened their coffers 
and sent a stream of gold across the Atlantic in ships such as old Nep- 
tune never saw when his trident ruled the Mediterranean. Neptune's 
power was limited to the sea. Alexander claimed to have conquered 
the world; but his dominions were confined to Asia and the territories 
on the shores of the Bosphorous. Julius Csesar, a still mightier 
monarch, ruled only on the eastern continent. King Cotton governs 
two hemispheres, and dominates on land and sea, and the kings of the 
east and the merchant princes of the west obey his bidding. Most 
fortunate was it for New York and the North that his power was 
unbroken ; for when the panic was progressing everywhere, and the 
banks were failing, and traders were being ruined, and New York 
itself was staggering and likely to go down with the mercantile in- 
terest of that section, producing wide-spread misery, it was this stream 
of gold which came from Europe that upheld the New York banks, 
and enabled them to sustain the merchants, and prevented a scene of 
ruin such as we have not hitherto seen. Suppose New York had lost 
that gold ; suppose the cotton which her ships were engaged in carry- 
ing had gone out in foreign vessels directly to Europe — above all, 
sir, suppose it were kept at home, and that neither the North nor 
England could obtain it; you would see such a commercial revulsion, 
such a panic, such a pressure, as has not been known in a century. 
Things would indeed look as if Chaos had returned to assert his 
ancient dominion over the world. I find a short extract in one of 
the British papers, the London Chronicle^ of January 18, which comes 
to me in the newspapers this morning, that illustrates the view that 
they are now taking in England of this danger: 

" The question is, in fact, little short of life and death. Ruin to merchants 
and mill-ownci's, and starvation to the rest of the population, hang imme- 
diately in the balance. One year's failure of the American crop, or post- 
ponement of the American supply, would produce calamities worse than any 
war or famine within modern experience." 

That is the statement of a British organ, not at all friendl}' to us 
and our institutions. The southern coast is too extensive to be actually 
blockaded by the greatest naval Power on earth ; and do you think 
Great Britain and France would regard a mere paper blockade? You 
know they would not; they could not afford to do it; and it would 
never be effective if attempted. Again, sir, as was said by the Senator 
from Louisiana (Mr. Sliclell) this morning, the whole ocean would 
swarm with privateers, and the northern shipowners would find them- 



(536) 

selves deprived of our freights, and also liable to capture on the high 
seas. But, I ask, does anybody suppose that the war would stop there ? 
Does anybody suppose for one moment that the people of the South 
would sit down quietly and be cooped up in that way? No, sir. They 
would march until they found an enemy on land; and with two thou- 
sand miles of frontier, stretching from the Atlantic to the extreme 
West, does anybody really suppose they would not find vulnerable 
points? I ask gentlemen what is to prevent an attack upon this capi- 
tal? This city could be destroyed by an army that did not cross the 
Potomac. A shell could be thrown from Virginia into this very Sen- 
ate Chamber. I do not say this by way of menace; but to let gentle- 
men see that there is no difficulty in finding points of collision; and 
lest I should be supposed to insinuate that there is on foot a plan to 
attack this capital, I wish to disclaim emphatically all purpose of any 
design to interfere with it as far as I know or believe. This capital is 
not of the smallest consequence in a military point of view. It was 
said by a great commander that, as to fortified places and cities, he 
would leave them to the end of the war; for they were the prizes which 
fall to the conqueror. This is eminently true of this District. It is 
obliged to follow the fate of the territory around it. Though the whole 
South were anxious that a northern government should be kept here, 
if Maryland and Virginia, or Virginia alone should leave the Union, 
we all know that the North would not find it to be to its interest to 
keep a capital either surrounded by foreign territory or on its border. 
I should regret deeply any struggle for a place like this, which is of 
no value in a military point of view, and which would impel the coun- 
try into civil war; but I am free to say, that if a war begins down in 
the South, it is as likely to come up here as to any other point that I 
know of. It cannot be confined to Charleston harbor; it cannot be 
confined to Pensacola; but when it begins there, it will find its way 
perhaps to this very city. 

Gentlemen will see that, with these two thousand miles of frontier, 
it is practicable to have war, and it would certainly occur, a regular 
old-fashioned war, if the present line of policy be continued. There 
can be no doubt about it. It is so clear to any gentlemen who reflects, 
that I do not think it necessary to enlarge upon it. But it is some- 
times said that, if a war begins, the North, being the more powerful of 
the two sections, will certainly be able to overrun the South. Mr. 
President, there are a million and a half of men in the slaveholding 
States capable of bearing arms; and it is generally supposed that a 
country can maintain permanently in the field one-sixth of its able- 
bodied men. That calculation would afford two hundred and fifty 
thousand men for a fighting force. You must recollect, however, that 
among our four million slaves there are at least two million laborers. 
This circumstance would largely increase the force we could keep in 
the field. I have no doubt that a million of men at home, with all 
the slaves, would carry on our industrial occupations, while we might 
have at least four or five hundred thousand men capable of being kept 
in the field. Such a force would certainly require an immense sum 



( 537 ) 

of money to maintain it; but a community struggling for existence 
will not count the cost of armaments. 

How will it be in the North? You ought to have a larger force 
than this to enable you to carry on war abroad. Suppose it is no 
larger: how are you to keep in the field a body of four hundred thou- 
sand or five hundred thousand men ? At the outset, I grant that your 
bankers might come forward, and enable you to begin the war on cre- 
dit; but all wars of any length cannot be maintained in that way. 
The exports of the free States are generally less than one hundred 
millions ; and your imports can be no greater, without draining you 
of specie. Any tariff you can impose will give no more money than 
you will want to support your Government in time of peace. I put 
this matter to gentlemen seriously, because it is well enough to look 
at these things now ; for in a few weeks we may have them upon us as 
actual realities. I ask Senators to exercise no greater foresight than any 
farmer manifests when, in the spring of the year, he provides for the 
coming autumn and winter. These issues may be upon us in a few 
weeks. 

Now, do you believe that you can get your people to consent to sup- 
port an enormous s^^stem of taxation for the mere purpose of subjuga- 
ting us? From the very nature of your population, your industrial 
occupations must suffer more than ours. A large portion of your peo- 
ple are engaged in commerce, and others in manufactures ; and they 
depend partly upon us for freights, and partly, also, for markets. 
Deprived of these you must have a large, idle, discontented, and suf- 
fering class. There is, besides, a still greater difficulty to be encoun- 
tered before you. A large portion of your people believe that you are 
wrong in this movement. 

When, Mr. President, the war broke out in America, Lord Chatham, 
said, on the floor of the British Parliament: 

"I rejoice that Amei-ica has resisted; three million people so dead to all 
sense of shame as to consent to become slaves would soon become the instru- 
ment of making slaves of us all." 

You will find hundreds and thousands of men rising up in the 
North and holding this language, and refusing a cordial support to 
your war measures. After, perhaps, a long, expensive, and bloody 
war, a peace would be made, leaving the two sections widely separated 
in feeling. When the peace of 1783 was made with Great Britain 
these States would have united with any civilized power on earth sooner 
than with her; and you may make, by such an attempt, a permanent 
separation and lasting enmity. 

I saj, then, Mr. President, that one of three contingencies is inevita- 
bly before you : either a settlement of these difficulties such a 
satisfactor}' and arrest the movement; or a recognition of a peaceable 
separation ; or thirdly, war. No human ingenuity can find any other 
result The best course, undoubtedly, would be to adjust things now, 
if possible, on a satisfactory and permanent basis. The next best is a 
peaceable recognition of the independence of the seceding States ; and 
68 



(538) 

the worst of all, but inevitable, if neither of the others be taken, is war. 
I tell gentlemen, if they sit still war will make itself; it will come of 
its own accord. Look now at the condition of the forts in the South. 
They were originally built, mainly to protect those States in which 
they are situated, as a portion of the Union, but there were some addi- 
tional reasons for their erection. When States secede, the government 
is entitled to be paid for its property, undoubtedly ; but the States 
have a moral and political right to occupy, and they will hold those 
fortifications in the end. I may say, in relation to the manner in 
which they came to be taken, something by way of explanation. On 
the last day of December, there were orders issued from the War 
Department, for the purpose of sending troops South. It is true, that 
late in the evening, perhaps as late as eleven o'clock, these orders were 
countermanded ; but in the meantime, telegraphic despatches were 
sent to the South, and a number of forts were taken. In my own 
State, on the day following, the 1st of January, we were advised there 
was a similar movement on foot, and a dispatch went down which pre- 
vented it, by giving assurances that the orders had been counter- 
manded. Not long afterwards, however, the sending down of the Star 
of the West occurred, other reports of hostile movements went abroad, 
and our own people occupied some of the forts in North Carolin ; but 
they were informed again that there was no purpose on the part of 
the government to reinforce them, and they were abandoned. 

I mention this in order that Senators may understand the animus 
of our people. They do not want to interfere with the government 
property ; they do not mean to interfere with its rights while it may 
be disposed to do them justice ; but they do not intend that these forts 
shall be used for their oppression. Of what use is Fort Sumter to the 
government of the United States unless it be to vex and harass 
Charleston? If things remain as they are now, with the understand- 
ing that these places are to be held by the government, or retaken, of 
course you will have war; it is obliged to come on. And this question 
presents itself to honorable Senators : had you rather have this war ; 
or do you prefer doing something to avoid it? If you let things 
remain as they are, until Mr. Lincoln comes into power, with the well 
understood purpose of holding the forts in the South, to compel those 
States to pay taxes to, and obey the laws of, what is now a foreign gov- 
ernment, you leave them no alternative but to take those forts by force. 
I repeat, if under these circumstances you stand still, all the world 
will know that you mean to have war. 

I am sorry to see, Mr. President, that many on the other side, 
instead of meeting these questions as I think they ought to do, are 
laboring under strange delusions. When Senators — I refer particu- 
larly to the Senator from Mississippi, (Mr. Davis,) who has left, and the 
Senator from Virginia (Mr. Hunter) — spoke of the evils of war, and 
deprecated them, it was trumpeted far and wide through the North 
that tlie South was afraid of the result, and was begging for peace. 
There never was a greater mistake. I have yet to see the first South- 
ern man who believes that his section could be conquered; but in 
speaking of the evils of war, these gentlemen show that they have 



(539) 

counted the cost of the enterprise, and are willing to hazard all its 
consequences. 

But another and still greater delusion under which I think Repub- 
licans are laboring is, that a Southern Confederacy would not be 
recognized b}^ the great Powers of the earth. Do they not know that 
it is a well-settled principle to recognize cle facto governments? Oh, 
yes; but they suppose that the humanity of Great iBritain will prevent 
her recognizing a slaveholding community. Let us look a little to the 
acts of that government. Its humanity did not prevent its waging 
war with China to compel the Chinese to take opium for the benefit of 
her India colonists. She is just now concluding a war with Cliina; 
and one of the very objects — if the newspapers are to be relied on — to 
be effected, is the right to take coolies from China, and transport them 
to the British Colonies. Remember, that China had earnestly resisted 
the seizure of her people by British agents, and done all in her power 
to suppress this trade in the bodies of her subjects. 

Of this coolie trade I need not speak. Everybody knows that it 
is vastly more inhuman than the slave trade was in its worst days; 
that the proportion of Chinamen who are destroyed in Cuba, and other 
countries to which they are sent, is vastly greater than that of Africans 
who perish under the slave trade, and in the countries to which they 
are carried ; but yet, if the papers are to be relied upon, Great Britain 
is improving on the old coolie traffic ; and instead of holding them to 
labor eight years, she is going to work them for twenty years. Eight 
years was sufficient to destroy three-fourths of them, I think ; and 
they are now going to try it for twenty years; and my friend from 
Missouri, (Mr. Polk) suggests that she makes them pay their own pas- 
sage back. That is, she will take Chinamen, bring them to her colonies 
to work for twenty years, and then let them pay their passage home, 
if they survive till that time. 

I do not. say these things with any view of creating ill feeling against 
Great Britain; but look at her line of policy. Her humanity does 
not prevent her allowing the enforcement of the collection of rents in 
India by torture. A commission of the British Parliament has shown 
that thousands of Indian people were tortured to death by the most 
infernal devices that the wit of man ever imagined ; yet that does not 
stop, because they say they cannot collect the rent without resorting 
to this mode, and their Indian empire would be valueless. Great 
Britain's hatred of slavery does not prevent her recognizing Turkey, 
a country where they hold slaves of all races and all colors. In fact, 
Great Britain went to war with Russia to prevent the destruction of 
that very slaveholding government. 

But it is supposed that Great Britain has such a sympathy and 
friendship for the North, and that there is such a feeling upon this 
slavery question, that she would not recognize a revolting slavehold- 
ing Southern confederacy. Great Britain and Portugal had been on 
the most friendly terms for a century. Little Portugal was a jyrotege 
of Great Britain, and Great Britain took many a fight on her hands 
for her sake. She loved her like an orphan child; but her love for 
Portugal did not prevent her recognizing Brazil, when that country 



(540) 

revolted and established its independence. England and Brazil (the 
greatest slaveholding country in the world except our own, are now on 
terms of the closest friendship. 

But Senators will, perhaps, tell me that she has abolished slavery in 
Jamaica and the West Indies. It would be an old story for me to 
argue that that was a political movement. However, just to refresh 
the minds of Senators, let me read a short extract from what Sir 
Robert Peel said in 1841 ; for what was said twenty years ago is likely 
to be a reality now. In the debate on the sugar duties he said: 

"It was impossible to look to the discussions in the United States of 
America, and especially to tlie conflicts between the Northern and SoutheTn 
States, without seeing that slavery in that nation stood upon a precarious 
footing" 

That was his view in 184] ; and in less than twelve months after, 
you find him making this declaration : 

"That the £20,000,000 sterling expended in the West India emancipa- 
tion would he well repaid by the effect the abolition of slavery would have 
in the United States, Cuba and Brazil." 

These declarations explain the policy which dictated the West India 
emancipation. Now, Mr. President, I beg gentlemen not to be deluded 
by all they see in the English papers. There is, no doubt, a great 
deal of ignorance in England about this country. I read the other 
day, and have read it again and again in the English papers, that the 
plantations at the South were all mortgaged to the North ; and that 
the negroes and lands were, in fact, owned b}'' the North, and if it were 
not that the North supplied the means, no cotton could be made. 
Any opinion of British papers founded on such delusion^as these is 
not worth much to any body. But I do say there is now a great deal 
of intelligence among the well informed in England in relation to our 
country, and they evidently understand things far better now than 
they did formerly. 

Suppose, then, it was the purpose of Great Britain, as it was inti- 
mated by Sir Robert Peel, to make use of this anti-slavery movement 
with a view of breaking down slavery in the United States, or causing 
a dissolution of the Union ; gentlemen may ask me what motive 
Great Britain has to desire such a result. I think she has at least four 
powerful reasons, any one of which of itself might be sufficient to 
direct her action. Her great rival on the seas now is the United 
States. The North furnishes the ships, and the South the freights. I 
may say to gentlemen that, among those freights furnished by the 
North, there is not a great deal of bulk. The gold of California could 
be carried in asmall ship; and the manufactures of the North take up 
a little space; but the cotton, the tobacco, the rice, the naval stores, and, 
in part, the breadstuffs of the South, mainly furnishes the freights for 
the immense Northern shipping. Suppose Great Britain can succeed 
in dividing your ships from our freights; it reduces America com- 



/ 

(541) 

paratively to a small maritime Power. That is one powerful motive. 
A second one is this: Great Britain is seeking to carry her manufac- 
tures into all the countries of the world. They are now kept out of 
the South by this tariff of twenty and thirty per cent., because the 
North has that advantage; but if the South becomes inde})endent, 
British goods and Northern goods come to us exactly upon the same 
terms; and I saw enough of prices in Europe, a little more than a 
year ago, to know that our Northern friends will find their industry 
very much supplanted by an equal tariff between their goods and 
those of Great Britain and other countries. While the South would 
be a great gainer by this operation, as well as England, the North will 
lose immensely. 

But there is a third motive which would naturally operate on the 
British government, and to some extent on others. The United States 
has now over thirty millions people. In twenty-five years we shall 
probably have more than sixty millions. If the Union continues, in 
fifty years from this day we ouglit to have one hundred and twenty 
millions. We certainly shall have more than a hundred millions. 
We will be a Power so great that we mig-ht control civilization; and 
it it ver}^ natural that an ambitious nation like Great Britain sliould 
be willing to cut that power down. We would do the same thing, 
perhaps, in a similar position. 

But, Mr. President, there is a fourth reason which operates on her. 
It is well known that republican ideas and liberal principles are 
making great progress in Europe; and the governing classes, the privi- 
leged classes there, are struggling against them. The division of this 
Union would throw back liberal ideas for ten years, perhaps twenty — 
God only knows how long — in Europe. These four powerful motives 
may operate upon the British government, and induce those especially 
interested in its success as at present organized, to regard a dissolution 
of the Union of these States as eminently advantageous. 

Now, suppose that a certain class — I do not pretend that the whole 
people are so — but suppose sagacious persons in Europe wished to pro- 
duce this result: what would they do? They know that the North is 
very sensitive to British opinion, while the South is not at all so. The 
South, they know, will march forward with its own ideas and views, 
without regard to what may be said in England ; but the North being 
sensitive to its opinion, what more natural than that the London Post, 
which is understood to be Lord Palmerston's organ, should come out 
in article after article, telling the North, if they now give way, they 
will be utterly disgraced ; that the United States will be held in con- 
tempt by the world if they make any concessions to the slave power? 
This is ingenious flattery to the anti slavery feeling of the Republican 
party. I recollect, Mr. President, in my boyish days, reading in the 
Pilgrim's Progress of a certain black man who wore a very white robe, 
who met the two Pilgrims, and with fair speeches invited them to 
accompany him. They soon found tnemselves entrapped and caught 
in a net; and then the white robe fell off the shoulders of the black 
man. Has it never occurred to Senators on the other side that there 
may be a mistake in all their calculations? As a confirmation of this 



( 542 ) 

suggestion, namely, that these British organs may change their tone 
after the result has been effected, I will ask the Secretary to read an 
extract which I find in the London Times of the 18th of January, 
which came to me in the mail this morning, and which shows that 
they now at least understood pretty well the condition of things in this 
country. The Times, I need not remark, is the best exponent of British 
opinion, and I think fully and fairly represents British feelings and 
British prejudices, as it is undoubtedly the ablest paper in the world. 
I ask the Secretary to read that extract. 
Tjie Secretary read, as follows: 

"If South Carolina secedes; if Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Arkansas, Louisiana follow; if a Southern federation be formed, and takes its 
place among the Powers of the earth, there can be no hope of keeping the 
border slaves States. Tliese will be drawn by a natural affinity to detach 
themselves from the North and join the slaveholding federation. North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, will 
then be dissociated f ro?n the free States. Sucli an event cannot be regarded 
without dismay b}^ the most staunch AboHtionist. It would, in fact, make 
the Soutliern federcation the real United States, as far as territory, present and 
prospective, is concerned, and reduces the North to what our ancestors would 
have called a 'rump.' The people of Boston or Philadelphia might be dis- 
tinguished for their ability and enterprise, but they would belong to a coun- 
try with liardly a greater future than Canada. Every natural advantage 
would be on the side of the slave States. Look at the map, and you will see 
what a nai'row slip of country conijioses the free soil of the American feder- 
ation. Only the sea-coast from the Britisli frontier to the Delaware — a few 
hundred mik^s— belongs to it; all the rest, stretching far away down the 
Atlantic and along the Gulf of Mexico, is in the hands of the slave owners. 
The mouth of the Mississippi, is theirs; the Missouri and Arkansas, the great 
arteries of the extreme West, are theirs. Virginia pushes a spur of territory 
to within less than a hundred miles of Lake Erie, and thus divides the Atlantic 
free States from the West in a manner highly dangei"ous to their future 
union. Indeed, it is doubtful whether the connection between New York 
and New England on the one hand, and Illinois and the neighboring States on 
the other, could long survive the total separation of the South. The North 
would have a territory as straggling as that of Prussia, and the western region 
would soon find it advantageous to dissolve it sunion with the eastern. 

" In the meantime, all the riches of the New World would be in the grasp 
of the Southerners. Instead of exploring the inhospitable regions in the 
neighborhood of the British frontier, which would be all that remained to the 
North, the slave owners would carry their 'undeniable property' into lands 
blessed with every advantage of climate, soil and mineral wealth. Texas has 
territory enough to make three or four great States. New Mexico is about 
to be admitted with slave institutions. Arizona will follow. Mexico must 
in a few years be conquered, and the Southerners, lords of the most magni- 
ficent domain in the world, would control the passage between the two ' 
oceans. In short, if the Union lets South Carolina go, there is no saying what 
may go with it. It is very well to speculate on the return of an erring sister, 
but experience shows that secessions, when once made are not easily recalled. 
It is the nature of cracks to widen, and both at the North and West there are 
masses of people so earnest in the advocacy of strong measures to prevent a 
disruption that the President may be forced into active measures. For our 



( 543 ) 

own part, whatever opinions Americans may have of English policy, we beg 
to assure them that in this country there is only one wish — that the Union 
may survive this terrible trial. Should Providence decree it otherwise, we 
earnestly pray that the separation may be an amicable one. Civil war in a 
flourishing country and among a kindred people, can never be contemplated 
without horror by a nation like ours; and we trust that neither the violence 
of the people nor the weakness of tlieir leaders will bring this calamity on the 
American Union." 

Mr. Clingman. Mr. President, T think that illustrates pretty well 
the line of argunrent which 1 have been endeavoring to make, that 
Senators on the other side of the chamber will find themselves wholly 
mistaken if they imagine that Great Britain and France will not 
recognize us. In addition to all those reasons which would justify 
the recognition of countries generally, is the absolute necessity they 
are under of having cotton from us. 

Another mistake which I think gentlemen make is this: they sup- 
pose this movement at the South may be the mere result of the efforts 
of designing politicians; and that the break up at Charleston has 
caused it. No one was more averse than myself to seeing this separa- 
tion of the Democratic party ; and I thank the honorable Senator from 
Ohio (INIr. Pugh) for his efforts on that occasion, and those of all others, 
to prevent it. But, sir, so far from its contributing to this secession 
movement, it has been the main obstacle in its way. The great body 
of the people of the South do not hate the North, I think, as has been 
said by some Senators. I know it is not true in North Carolina. 
There is a very great distrust of the dominant majority of the North, 
and an apprehension of mischief; but the great body of our people 
would far prefer a union with the North upon honorable terms. While 
this is true, however, it is equally well known that the division of the 
Democratic party has retarded the action of tlie South in defence of its 
honor and its rights. 

I say, to you, sir, that but for this division of the party, if we had 
however, been beaten, the whole South would have gone out just as 
South Carolina has done — I mean without division. It was that party 
division and the discussion growing out of it, and the charges and 
crimination and recrimination of Union and disunion in the can- 
vass, that were the great obstacles in the way. But our people are 
gradually getting over those prejuflices; and they see that the Repub- 
licans of the North intended to beat us, whether we were united or 
not; and the very men who most regretted the divisions of the party 
are gradually falling into the movement. They see we will be ruined 
by submission to the election of Mr. Lincoln. The Republicans meant 
to beat us, whether we were united or not, and the injury from their 
rule is the same either way; and it is not for them to say that we 
fought the battle unskillfully. I admit we did fight unskillfully ; but 
everybody in the South was against them. We say that their domi- 
nation is just as mischievous to us as if we had been well united. 
Another fact presents itself, that they have a clear, large, overwhelm- 
ing majority in the northern States; enough to give them the control 



( 544 ) 

of the Government; and it is a knowledge of this fact that is driving 
our people forward, and they will gradually come up to one line of 
action. History reproduces itself; human nature is the same; and it 
might have been said in our struggle with Great Britain that the col- 
onies were divided. They did not defend themselves well. Gates, by 
his rashness, incurred the defeat at Camden. There were dissensions 
in the colonies, and even many tories among them ; but that was no 
excuse for Great Britain. She intended to subdue them, whether they 
were united or not, and the injury of her domination would have been 
the same in either event. 

Again : it is said, very plausibly, I admit, that we ought not to 
abandon our Northern friends, our allies. That identical remark 
might have been made, and was, in substance, made, during our Revo- 
lution, for there were Chatham and Burke and others whom our colo- 
nies had to abandon. Lord Chatham never justified, but always con- 
demned, the secession of the colonies; but that secession or revolution 
vindicated him and Burke and Fox. And, sir, if we were now to 
submit, where would our Northern allies be? Trampled under foot 
by a resistless anti-slavery party. It would be said : " Your Southern 
friends are gasconading braggarts; ready to submit to us like whipped 
spaniels." They would be trodden down and annihilated ; but by our 
resisting we vindicate the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Pugh) as a patriot, 
a sagacious statesman, and a just man. We vindicate the Senator 
from Illinois (Mr. Douglas;) the Senators from Indiana; the Senator 
from. Oregon (Mr. Lane;) the Senators from Pennsylvania (Mr. Bigler) 
and New Jersey (Mr. Thompson ;) and last though not least, the gen- 
erous Senator from Minnesota (Mr. Rice.) They will stand in after 
times as men who had the sagacity to see the right, and the courage 
to defend it. 

Again : we are told that having gone into the contest, we are bound 
to submit to the result, just as a gambler who plays a game must pay 
the stakes he loses. Why, Mr. President, on this principle, if the Re- 
publicans were to nominate a free negro, I suppose we ought to let 
him be elected without opposition, for if we run a candidate against 
him, we would be bound to submit to him if elected, and therefore 
ought to let him go in without opposition. If we had not attempted 
to defeat Lincoln, in fact, by running a rival candidate, we might have 
been obliged to submit, and ought to have been, and would have been, 
justly held responsible. We, however, did our duty to the country by 
making an honest effort to defeat him, though possibly we may not 
have conducted the contest skillfully. I maintain that no party in the 
South is justly chargeable with Lincoln's election, as, in spite of their 
resistance, he obtained a large majority over all opposition in States 
enough in the North to elect him. 

I will say in candor also to Senators, that there are three measures 
now passing which will add very much to the secession movement in 
the South. I allude, first, to the Pacific railroad bill, by which we 
have undertaken, as far as this Senate can undertake anything, to 
build three railroads, at a cost of $120,000,000. Now, sir, some of 
our people deny your right to make improvements. Those who admit 



(545) 

tlie right, doubt very much whether you ought to go to the expense 
of making a single raih'oad across a thousand miles of desert and 
uninhabited country; and this proposition for building three railroads, 
under these circumstances, and incurring a debt, perhaps to be in- 
creased to two or three hundred millions, (for the best informed men 
say it cannot fall below $300,000,000,) will drive many of the most 
sagacious and reflective men of the South, men of philosophical minds, 
to acquiesce in dissolution. 

Again, sir, here is this tariff bill, likely to be adopted, which passed 
the House by a large, vote, containing most iniquitous provisions for 
the benefit of particular classes; and then there is another measure 
which, with due respect to those who endorse it, to my mind, is the 
most indefensible of all propositions hitherto advocated — I mean the 
homestead bill. The idea of giving up the public property by whole- 
sale at any time to men, many of whom are the least meritorious of 
the community, is wholly indefensible, in my judgment; but now, 
)vith a bankrupt Treasury, borrowing money at the rate of fifty or 
sixty million a year, the policy of giving up these public lands in a 
body, to any one who chooses to take them, shocks the whole com- 
munity. 

Recollect that, with the sum already authorized to be borrowed at 
this session, the bills from the House now before us, and which it is 
understood are sure to be passed here, make a sum total of $70,000,000. 
This does not include the .§121,000,000 for the Pacific railroads, and, 
in addition, we are to have this most oppressive tariff bill to tax the 
country outrageously, while the pending homestead bill gives the pub- 
lie property to the " landless." 

Our people are coming to the conclusion that this government has 
become so vast that it is an impracticable one. I am not sure of this. 
I think, large as the country is, that the government might be well 
administered, but for the anti-slavery excitement. When a family is 
divided into two sections, who are warring against each other, of 
course household duties must be neglected. We have had a struggle 
for the last ten years ; the North pressing, and the South struggling 
for its honor and safety against the movement; and such measures 
are its results. In fact"^they are directly traceable to that hostility of 
Northern anti-slavery men. Why, sir, the people of the Northwest do 
not want high protective tariffs — by no means; and many Republi- 
cans do not want them; and yet you find the Republicans in a body, 
in the House and on this floor, coming up and voting for a most enor- 
mous tariff. Why ? It is to secure the support of the tariff-men of 
Pennsylvania and elsewhere. 

Again, sir. New England does not like this homestead bill. At any 
rate, when I came here fifteen years ago, I found the men from New 
England were in favor of holding on to the public lands, and so far 
from wishing to encourage settlement in the West, they used to object 
strenuously to opening that territory to take off their laborers from 
them. They wished to retain them at home and thus keep dowri the 
price of wages. Now you find the solid vote of New England, I believe, 
for the homestead bill to tempt their people to go away. Why is this? 
69 



(546) 

They want to satisf}' the West; and you find the northwestern Repub- 
licans going for this high protective tariff to secure the votes of Penn- 
sylvania and the East. Tlie anti-slavery men form the great nucleus 
of the part}^, and they spread out their arms in all directions and 
gather in allies. 

Now, I am free to say, Mr. President, if, when this homestead bill 
was up, I could substitute for it a proposition giving the lands abso- 
lutely to the new States in which they lie, I would prefer it. It is a 
less evil to the government. If they choose to give them out to the 
landless, let them do it. I would in that way, if I could, cut them 
loose from this combination. In the same way, sir, if you present to 
me a well-guarded Pacific railroad bill for a single track, I will vote it 
through, if it is on the cheapest and best line; but if you ask me to 
tax my people outrageously to benefit a few manufacturing capitalists, 
I wdll not do it. What I desire, then, is this: we should, even if this 
Government is to endure, dissolve this combination, Remember, sir, 
the South has no share in this copartnership. The Northeast is to get 
the tariff"; the Northwest the Pacific railroad and the homestead bill; 
and the Republicans, or Abolitionists, are to get anti-slavery. These 
are the parties to the combination. The sagacious men of the South 
see the danger; and sooner than submit to be cheated and plundered 
in this mode, with the prospect in the future of the abolition of slavery 
and the utter destruction of their section, they are coming resolutely 
into the struggle. Nor will they pause now unless full justice be done 
them on this slavery question. The Legislature of my own State, as 
well as that of Virginia has planted itself firmly on the basis of the 
Crittenden propositions, with certain additions, and they will not be 
satisfied with less. 

I am astonished that the North hesitates to take the proposition of 
the honorable Senator from Kentucky. What is it? Why, of the 
existing territory, it gives the South about one-fifth and the North 
four-fifths. We are entitled to have two-fifths according to popula- 
tion. They say it is carrying out the platform on which Mr. Breckin- 
ridge was nominated; I allude to the presidential candidate. All 
that is a mistake. By that ])latform, as they understand it, slavery 
WRS to be protected in all the Territories; and the people of the South 
honestly believe that it ought to be so, and that, according to the true 
intent of the Constitution, it is protected; and the opinions of the Su- 
preme Court sustain this view. Now, instead of carrying it out, that 
proposition proposes to give the North four-fifths of the territory, and 
only one-fifth to the South. Why, sir, a man who claims a tract of 
land, and offers, as a compromise, to give up four-fifths of it, would 
not obtain his claim, certainly. It seems to me, therefore, the Repub- 
licans ought not hesitate one moment, but ought at once to have 
taken it. 

They say, however, that their platform requires that they shall have 
the whole of the territory, and exclude us altogether. I submit to 
honorable Senators as just men, (for I know that in the ordinary 
transactions of life they are just men,) that there is not a Senator on 
that side of the Chamber that does not know that the South has con- 



(547) 

tributed its money fairly witli tlie Nortli ; that in every war we have 
turned out more than our proportion of men; and I ask them if it is 
just that our people should altogether be excluded from those acqui- 
sitions which we jointly made? 

But some of them object to that provision which applies it to future 
Territories. They say we will take Mexico, Central America, &c. 
Why, Mr. President, if none of the States had seceded, the North 
would have a majority now of eight Senators on this floor. With all the 
States represented in the other branch, she has fifty-seven majority, and 
under the incoming apportionment will have over sixty. They know 
that no territory can be ever acquired without a large support from 
them; and the new States of the Northwest coming in will very soon 
swell still more their majorities. It is idle, therefore, for these gentlemen 
to try to convince an}^ one that they are afraid of acquisitions against 
their wishes. No, sir; I apprehend that they want to keep this ques- 
tion open. I fear they want to have materials to electioneer at home, 
and put down those men who are just enough to recognize our right. 
I fear that they want to keep it an open question, by which they can 
crush out such Northern Democrats as my friend from Ohio. If not, 
why object to settling the whole territorial question for all time to 
come? 

Again, sir; wh}'' not agree that slavery shall be protected in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, the forts and arsenals in the slave States, and to the 
slave trade between the States? They can do that without interfering 
with any Northern interest. If they do that — if they place this entire 
question where it cannot be reached, you may, perhaps, end this 
agitation ; otherwise it cannot be ended ; and, for the sake of our 
Northern friends, I think we ought now to take a stand and leave the 
Union at once, unless a complete adjustment can be made. 

Ten years ago, Mr. President, I became ajiprehensive that we should 
have a dissolution of the Union between these States. Up to that time 
I had not thought it possible. I think there was a great error com- 
mitted then. I have always regretted tha' Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, 
patriotic as they were, did not seem to appreciate the magnitude of 
the question, and did not place that settlement on its proper ground. 
If that Missouri line had been run through, as was demanded b}^ the 
South, (and if they had gone for it it could have been done,) possibly 
we should have had peace. Nay, more: after it was determined that 
we should try non-intervention, I earnestly endeavored to induce 
them to repeal the Missouri restriction, and let non-intervention apply 
to Kansas and all the territory north of the line of 36° 30'. If they 
had done that at that time, we should have avoided the excitement and 
discussion growing out of the application of the principle to Kansas, 
and possibly we might have had peace. But ever since then, looking 
to the future, I have had apprehensions; and in examining the map 
of America I have often been brought to the conclusion that it seemed 
as if Providence had marked out on it two great empires — one lying 
on the Mississippi and around the Gulf of Mexico ; the other upon 
the basin of the St. Lawrence. We know, Mr. President, that natural 
boundaries control very much the form of nations. A great and pow- 



(548) 

erful force sometimes carries a nationality over boundaries ; but nature 
conquers in the end. Italy has extended itself into France and Spain, 
and France and Spain have each extended themselves into Italy; but 
the Alps and the Pyrennees still stand as the boundaries of those 
empires. 

Now, sir, there are States which lie partly upon the waters of the Mis- 
sissippi, and partly upon the St. Lawrence. Which empire they will 
go with, if this division occurs, is a matter of speculation. Whether 
they will be divided, I know not; but it would seem that political feel- 
ing is now tending to such a division. The section nearest the St. Law- 
rence is anti-slavery strongly, while in the southern borders of those 
States there are opposite sentiments. It would seem, sir, as if the 
political, and the social feelings of the Northern and Southern sections of 
the Union were drifting in the direction of the flow of these immense 
rivers, and that future nationalities were to have their forms deter- 
mined by these natural divisions. 

Mr. President, we have had thirteen Presidents of the United States 
elected by the {)eople. I mean Mr. Buchanan is the thirteenth man 
thus chosen who has presided over all the States At the time the 
Confederacy was formed, was it written in the book of fate that it 
should endure until there had been a man elected for each of those 
States? Senators on the other side of this Chamber will determine 
that question. 

The honorable Senator from New York spoke v/ith regret of a divis- 
ion of the Union when the dome of this ca[)ital was almost completed. 
The tower of Babel was not finished when the nations of antiquity 
were divided. Tliere was a providential purpose in that movement — 
to humble the pride of man, and extend humanity over the eastern 
continent. Whether there is such a purpose now, by dividing this 
Union, to send two streams of civilization over America, or whether 
this unfinished tower is to stand as a monument of human folly and 
dissension upon a continent strown far and wide with the immense 
ruins of a gigantic political and social fabric, time alone can disclose. 
If evil should happen, the finger of history will fix the responsibility 
on those who commenced and carried out this anti-slavery revolution. 
When Julius Csesar looked over the field of Pharsalia, and saw it 
strown with the bodies of his slain countrymen, he exclaimed, "They 
would have it so." Posterity will say of those who persist in this war- 
fare, " You would have these results." 

The most impressive ceremony, Mr. President, Avhich I have wit- 
nessed in this Chamber was on the occasion when a number of Sen- 
ators from the seceding States took leave of us. It reminded me of 
the funeral ceremonies when a Senator has died, but was far more 
impressive, because the annunciation of the death of a State of this Con- 
federacy is more momentous than that of its representative. I use the 
term, because there is an analogy between the cases. When a Senator 
dies, his spirit goes from one state of existence to another; it may be 
a brigliter and a better one. When those States no longer live to 
this Government, they pass into a new Confederacy. The Israelites, 
with wailing and lamentation, deplored the loss of one of their tribes. 



(549) 

When recently the annunciation of the departure of a single State was 
made here, it was met with strange levity on the other side of the 
Chamber. How will it be, sir, when the ten tribes have gone, when 
fifteen States have departed ? In those States were born and nour- 
ished such slaveholders as Washington and Jefferson and Madison 
and Henry and Marshall and Jackson and Clay and Calhoun. They 
are filled at this day with such slaveholders and " poor whites," as our 
non-slave owners are stigmatized by abolition speakers, as formerly 
went up with George Washington to defend Massachusetts and New 
York and Pennsylvania and the Jerseys, and, at a later day, stood 
upon the Canada line with Forsyth and Scott and Harrison and John- 
son. When pressed by a formidable foe, the North did not refuse the 
aid of these southern " barbarians." If it has now grown to be so 
great that it regards a further association with them an incumbrance 
or a disgrace, then for the sake of past recollections, why not let them 
go in peace? 

The Senator iVom New York said on one occasion, not long since, 
that, in this dispute between the North and the South, it was a matter 
of conscience with the North, while with the South it was only a 
matter of interest; and therefore the South ought to yield. By this 
mode, the conscience of the North can be relieved without subjecting 
the South to financial bankruptcy, political degradation and social 
rnin. The anti-slavery current can then run its course unchecked 
and untrammeled. It has already demanded, at Boston, the removal 
of the statue of Daniel Webster because he was willing to compro- 
mise with the South. How long will it be until it reaches that stage 
when it will require that the statues of such slaveholders as Wasliing- 
ton and Jackson shall be thrown into the Potomac, the monument of 
the former razed to the ground, and the very name of this city changed 
to one in harmony with the anti-slavery feeling? Hereafter, if the 
North should meet adverse fortune, and again change its views, then 
there might be a reunion and a reconstruction of the government. 
Twice did the Plebians secede, and twice did the haughty Patricians 
make such terms of concilation as rendered Rome the foremost empire 
upon earth. 

If the States were now divided into two confederacies, and their 
interests required a union, I do not know why it might not occur. 
But war places an impassable gulf between them. A Roman ambassa- 
dor, ^addressing those to whom he was sent, said : " I carry in my 
bosom peace and war; which will you have?" Reversing his declar- 
ation, I sa}' to Senators on the other side of this Chamber, "You carry 
in your bosoms, for the country, peace or war; which do you mean to 
give it ?" If you say war, then our people will meet you, and struggle 
with you all along the lines, and wherever else you come ; and they 
will defend their honor and the safety of their wives and children, 
with the same spirit and resolution which was exhibited at Sullivan's 
Island and at King's Mountain, at Yorktown and at New Orleans, and 
over the many battle-fields of Mexico. I have no doubt that the South 
will make a triumphal defence if assailed; but sooner than submit to 
disgrace and degradation, she would, if fall she must, rather go down 



(550) 

like the strong man of the Bible, carrying with her the main pillars of 
the edifice, the edifice itself, and the lords of the Philistines, into one 
common ruin. 



APPENDIX. 

[The following was added to the pamphlet edition issued two or three days after 
the delivery of the speech :] 

Since tlie delivery and publication of the above speech, an arrival from 
Europe brings additional evidences of the current of British opinion on 
the new condition of things to be presented immediately. The views I 
have suggested are being confirmed, at an earlier period than was antici- 
pated, though there was no reason to doubt but that such would be the 
case as soon as the dissolution of the Union should be regarded as a set- 
tled thing. I present extracts from several of the leading British journals. 

From the London Times, Jan. 22. 

" There is not an hour to be lost in providing against this tremendous 
danger. To put the case in the unldest form, three-fourths of our cotton 
supply has become uncertain, one-third of our trade is in jeopardy, and 
the earnings of one-sixth of our population may be rendered precarious. 
Are not these facts enough to set us at work with a will ?" 

In the two last issues of the paper, which is regarded as the peculiar 
organ of the British Premier, Lord Palmerston, the following views are 
presented : 

From, the London Post, Jan. 21. 

" England is now threatened with a great danger in two forms, one 
immediate, the other not very distant, and that danger concerns not only 
the national prosjyerity , hut the very existence of something like five mil- 
lions of the pojndatioji. The first form is that, in the existing state of 
things in the southern States of North America, civil war or servile 
insurrection may prevent the cotton crop being sown in March or gath- 
ered in Septemlier. The second is, that as soon as the Southern Confed- 
eracy has consolidated itself it may revive the slave trade, and thereby 
throw diificulties in tlie way of our obtaining cotton from it as before." 

F'om the London Post, Jan. 22. 

" That there is imminent danger of civil war in America can no longer 
be doubted. We sincerely trust that the peril which now threatens may 
pass away, but we cannot shut our eyes to its existence, and we cannot 
but contemplate with apprehension the consequences which a contest 
between the northern and soutliern States is likely to entail upon our- 
selves. It ts notorious that tijjon one ai'ticle of .AmeriGan produce mil- 
lions are dependent in this country for their daily hread. It is true that 
we now get cotton in considerable quantities both from India and from 
Africa, and in both tliose quarters the production of this great article of 
commerce is fast increasing, and is likely to increase. But India wants 



(551) 

railroads and Africa wants capital for the extension of cotton cultivation, 
and until these wants are supplied we must practically remain depen- 
dent upon our imports from the United States. What would he result 
if these imj)orfs were suddenly cut off, or even largely diminished f Such 
contino;encies are, we fear, but too probable in the event of a civil war 
in America." 

The subject of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy is elabo- 
rately discussed and considered in the London Eco7iomist, a paper rep- 
resenting; the views of Manchester, and the manufacturincr interests 
especially. 

Fro)ii the London Economist. 

" We last week promised our readers that we would take the earliest 
opportunity of considering the bearing of the dissolution of the Ameri- 
can Republic on the interests of our country, both political and com- 
mercial. We will suppose that matters will go on as they have begun ; 
that the other slave States will join South Carolina, and tliat a Southern 
Slaveholding Confederation will be formed as an independent nation, 
prepared to enter into relations with other States. 

" The first question that arises is, 'will England recognize the inde- 
pendence and sovereignty of the new State?' The natural spontaneous 
answer is, of course, in the affirmative. Our principle is, and has long- 
been, to recognize, and to enter into amicable relations witli all de facto 
States and Governments. The moment the severance is complete and 
admitted, we have no concern either with antecedent causes or proceed- 
ings. But here a difficulty arises. What is our actual relation to the 
new Republic ? Is the whole Union dissolved, or has there merely been 
a separation of a portion of it ? Are our treaties and engagements with 
both sections of the Union dissolved, by the dissolution of the Union 
itself? — or do they still hold with the North, as with the original body 
with which they were made? Do the Southern States, in seceding, still 
remain bound by the engagements entered into by the Confederation of 
which they formed a part at the date of those engagements? Or will 
they hold themselves liberated from all foreign contracts by the same act 
which has severed them from their domestic connection." * * * 
"The real, immediate, ^ra^'Z^imZ problem that lies across our path is 
this : 'Will the Southern Confederated States consider themselves bound 
by those mutual engagements as to abstinence from and suppression of 
the slave trade, entered into and still siibsisting between the United 
States and Great Britain ? Probably not, since one of their chief 
motives for seceding is to be able to renew the slave trade. If they hold 
themselves freed, we do not know how we can bind them, or make 
them regard themselves as bound. But supposing our diplomacy were 
able to obtain this point, the only conseciuence would be that they would 
give us formal notice of their intention to abrogate those treaties and 
engagements after a certain date. We might remonstrate; we might ne- 
gotiate ; but we do not know that we could refuse to accept such notice. 
The practical shape, therefore, in which the question will come us is this: 
' Shall w^e recognize their independent sovereignty, without requiring as 
a condition that they shall renew and observe the anti-slave trade treaties 
which subsist with their northern brethren — or even accept more strin- 



(552) 

gent ones ?' Doubtless we shall endeavor, and in consistency, and as a 
matter of duty on*i-!it to endeavor, to make this condition ; since we can- 
not shut our ejes to their notorious and avowed desic^n of reviving the 
abominal)le traffic, and to pretend to do so would be to surrender the 
most passionately and pertinaciously pursued object of our national policy. 
We shall urge upon them that the" trade is prohibited by international 
agreement and by municipal laM^ in every civilized nation in the world, 
and that we recognize and treat with no nation as civilized which persists 
in upholding it. They will, of course, refuse to accept such a condition, as 
it would defeat one ot their principal purposes ; and will insist on uncon- 
ditionat recognition . What are we to do then ? It might seem that we are 
sim|)ly helpless in the matter. Three courses are open to ns — none of them 
entirely satisfactory. 

" We may recognize their independen3e at once, in accordance with our 
usual practice, and when we have done so, may proceed to make the best 
terms that we can as to the anti-slave trade treaties. But this course, 
though the simplest and easiest, would be very painful to our feelings of 
humanity — foi- we cannot disguise iVom ourselves that it would be neai-ly 
equivalent to unconditional surrender." 

The only difficulties apprehended in this article we, here on this side 
of the Atlantic, know to be only imaginary. It is well settled that no 
purpose exists in tite seceded States to reopen the African slave trade. 
The question of the recognition of the Southern Confederacy was never 
a matter of doubt and is no longer debatable. 

How the dissolution of the Union is regarded in a political point of 
view, the following pregnant remarks fully indicate : 

" Apart from this perplexing question, we see no reason for anticipating 
that a severance of the Union, once effected peaceably, and without catas- 
troplie, will be iu any way injurious to Great Britain. On the contrary, we 
are not sure that it may not indirectly be rather beneficial than otherwise. 
In the first place, we may ex^Dect that America will be somewhat less aggres- 
sive, less insolent, and less irritable than she has been. Instead of one vast 
State, acting on evei'y foreign question cum toto corpore regni, we shall have 
two,^ Avith different objects and interests, and by no means always disposed to 
act in concert or in cordiality. Instead of one, showing an encroaching and 
somewhat bullying front to the rest of the world, we shall have two, show- 
ing something of the same front to each other. Each will be more occupied 
with its immediate neighbor, and therefore less inclined to pick quarrels 
with more distant nations. Then, too, for some time at least, the inordinate, 
though most natural sense of unrivaled prosperity and power, which swelled 
so fiatuleutly and disturbingly in the breast of every citizen of the great 
transatlantic Republic, will receive a salutary check. Their demeanor is 
likely to become somewhat humbler and more rational, and it will, therefore, 
be easier to maintain amicable and tranqail relations with thera than it has 
been. In place, too, of Europe being obliged to watch and thwart their 
annexing tendencies, the two federations will probably exercise this sort of 
moral police over each other." 

Though remarks like these tend to wound our luitional pride, w^e have 
the consolation of knowing that such a result has been produced by 
the aggressive course of the North, and that the South has carried her 
submission to wrong as far as she could go, wdthout degradation and 
ruin to her own people. 



(553) 

[As the session progressed the chances of an amicable settlement seemed to 
diminish. It was evident that while the liepublicans were averse to having 
a war with a majority of the Southern States, yet they were not unwilling to 
see a resistance upon a small scale, which might be suppressed, and thus 
strengthen their authority, and aid their purposes to enlarge the powers of 
the government for further uses. If assured that they would have to fight 
only the cotton States, the collision would have been welcomed, and, in fact, 
courted. Their pnrpose evidently was to soothe and quiet the South as much 
as possible, and prevent resistance, or even preparation for it, outside of the 
cotton States, and thus cause the other States to be blinded to the impending 
danger. The peace conference served their j)urposes very well by assisting 
to amuse the Southern people, and cheat them by holding out delusive hopes. 
The Union men of the South a^ded them greatly by sending home letters 
and telegrams, from time to time, assuring their constituents that everything 
was being settled. The state of opinion in the middle Southern States was 
carefully studied b}'^ Republicans, that they might see whether there was 
danger of their coming into the contest. 

With a view of apin-ising the people of North Carolina of the truth, and 
that I might be able to induce them to make such a demonstration as would 
tend to arrest the Northern war movement, I sent many letters and telegrams 
to editors and politicians in the State, some of which are presented as speci- 
mens.] 



Letter to W. H. Thomas, Esq. 

Senate Chamber, Wasliington, Jan. 9, 1S61. 

Dear Sir : — -Your dispatch reached me last night, giving the infonua- 
tion of the passage of the bill to arm the State. Had this bill and one 
to call a convention been passed a month ago, I think it probable that 
a sufficient impression might liave been made on the Black Tiepublicans 
to induce them to consent to some adjustment of the difficulties between 
the two sections. But the delay in our State, and similar evidences of 
hesitation or division in the South, encouraged our enemies. The}' 
came to the conclusion that they would have to meet no resistance out- 
side of the cotton States, and they believed that they would be able to 
crush that resistance by military force. Under this impression, they as 
a party took a stand against any substantial concession. Having taken 
that position, there seems to be no indication whatever that any adjust- 
ment is to be made that will protect our honor or maintain our rights. 

While I am, as one of the representatives of the South, at all times 
ready to accept any proper settlement, I cannot hold out at present any 
inducement to delay action. The obvious policy and purpose of the 
Black Republicans is to keep the South unprepared and divided until 
they can get into power, and then their intention is unmistakable — to 
use all the power of tlie government to compel the South to submit to 
their domination, to the extent even of abolishing slavery, should civil 
war afford them a tolerable pretext. If, however, North Carolina, Vir- 
ginia and the border States will act at once, they may, by preserving a 
a united South, avert the evils of civil war. 

Such I think will be the result, unless there shall, before tlie inaugu- 
ration be a military conflict. The Black Republicans are endeavoring 
7U 



( 554 ) 

by all the means in their ])Ower to induce Mr. Buchanan to begin the 
war. Gen. Scott, who is here directing the military movements, is on 
their line of policy. I have for the last two weeks been satisfied that 
unless the President reviewed all his orders, we should certainly be 
involved in war at a very early day. 

The message of the President, received to-day and now under discus- 
sion, can be construed in no other light than as & war message. Though 
he disclaims the right to coerce or make war in terms, yet he declares a 
purpose to enforce all the laws of the United States by military power 
in the seceding States. More than this he could not do, for no one 
would ask liim to enforce laws that did not exist. Lincoln himself would 
not, probably, at this time, resort to mere despotic acts outside of the 
existing laws. 

Whether, therefore, our purpose be to obtain Constitutional guaran- 
tees, to avert civil war, or to maintain our honor, and the property of 
our citizens, it is equall}^ the duty of the State to arm itself, and in con- 
vention of our people take action such as the emergency may demand. 
The sooner that Convention is called, and the fewer restrictions attempted 
to be imposed on it, the better for the whole country. Though I have 
Irequently expressed these views to you and to other members of our 
General Assembly, yet such is the importance of the subject, that I hope 
you will excuse my repeating them again. You are at liberty to make 
any use you may think proper of these views. 

Yery truly, yours, &c., 

W. H. Thomas, Esq. ^ T. L. CLINGMAN. 



Letter to Hon. Jas. W. Osborne. 

Senate Chamber, Washington, February 18, 1861. 

My Dear Sir : — -The pressure of public business has prevented my 
writing to you at an earlier day. There is not at this time the slightest 
prospect that any just Constitutional guarantees will be obtained, as our 
Legislature has unanimously demanded as a condition of submission to 
Lincoln. In fact, since the news of the Tennessee election reached this 
place, there seems to be no prospect of any compromise being adopted 
by the Black Republicans. 

Lincoln and the bulk of his party declare that they will make no con 
cessions to traitors and rebels, as the}'- characterize the seceding States, 
and that until they have been reduced to obedience, or, in fact, subju- 
gated, no terms of conciliation are to be listened to. 

Our State, as well as the entire South, has declared against this policy 
of coercion. The great practical question, tlierefore, for North Carolina 
to decide is, whether she will aid Lincoln in this policy of coercion, or 
join the Southern States in resisting it. If she remains in the Union 
under Lincoln, she must not only furnish him money to wage war against 
the seceding States, but is liable to be called on to furnish men also. If 
she joins him in the war against the Southern seceding States, she must, in 
the end, expect to have slavery abolished by force of arms, and to see the 



( 555 ) 

South reduced to the condition of Jamaica or St. Domingo ; or, in other 
words, to a condition oi free negro equality. 

The abolitionists are the aggressors in this war, while the Southern 
States ai-e merely claiming their Constitutional riglits, as North Carolina 
has again and again declared. I repeat, that the great practical ques- 
tion for us to determine is, whether we shall, as a people, aid Lincoln in 
this war on the South, or aid the South in defending its rights in com- 
mon with our own. 

All except those who are at heart for unconditional suhnission to the 
Black Republicans, will soon see that this is now the practical issue to 
be decided. A vote for submission is in efiect a vote for ciml war and 
free negro equality over the South. 

But, should North Carolina take a stand for resistance, her influence, 
and that of Virginia, may be sufficient to arrest the purpose of Lincoln 
and his followers, for they are disinclined to tight a united South, and 
peace may, in that way, Idc secured. 

The above, hurriedly written as it is, will give you a just idea, I think, 
of the prosj^ect before us, and you are at liberty to use it as your best 
judgment may dictate. 

I am very truly yours, &c,, 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

Hon. Jas, W. Osborne, Charlotte, N. C. 



Tebegram to the Editor of the Charlotte Bulletin. 

Washington-, February 18, 1861. 
There is no chance whatever for Crittenden's proposition. North 
Carolina must secede or aid Lincoln in making war on the South. 

^ T. L. CLINGMAN. 



(556) 

[As the session proceeded it became more and more evident that the Repub- 
licans were anxious to avoid, as much as possible, alarming the people of the 
South, and thereby preventing preparations for resistance. While many of 
them were waiting to see whether the movement would extend beyond the 
cotton States, they were all resolved apparently to keep the people of the 
South in the dark as to any hostile purposes they might entertain. Mr. 
Douglas co-operated strongly with them in insisting that there was no reason 
to apprehend war. He and other Union men really, witliout intending to do so 
probably, materially aided in bringing about the collision. As evidence of 
the nature of the efforts then made, and of the general current of feeling pre- 
vailing at the time, the following extracts from the debates as reported in the 
Globe are presented:] 

REMARKS 

ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL, DELIVERED IN THE 
UNITED STATES SENATE, MARCH 6, 1801. 

Mr. Clingman said : 

Mr. President : I agree with the honorable Senator from Illinois that 
there are some points ii])on which this inaugural is obscure ; but they 
are upon the limitations and conditions. Upon the main points there is 
no obscurity at all. Allow me to call the attention of that Senator to a 
few direct sentences : 

" I therefore consider tliat, in view of the Constitution and the laws, 
the Union is unbroken ; and to the extent of my ability, I shall take 
care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws 
of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States." 

Can anything be more explicit than that? How does the President 
execute the laws of the Union in Virginia and Pennsylvania ? By occu- 
pying the forts that are there, the arsenals and public property, and 
collecting the duties. That is precisely what he says he intends to do 
in all the States. But tlie In^norable Senator says that he may not have 
the power to do that ; and if the people do not give him the power 
he cannot do it, and therefoi'e he draws his hope. Let us see how 
that stands ? The President of the United States now has the control 
of an army, perhaps of fifteen thousand men. They are scattered far 
and wide about the country ; but in a few weeks half of them, pei'haps 
more, can be concentrated. Will he feel bound to tise that army, and 
the shi})s of war at his hand to take possession of Fort Moultrie ? 
Clearly the language implies it. Fort Moultrie has been taken posses- 
sion of by those men whom he pronounces insurgents and revolutionists. 

Tliis is his language. 

" It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, 
can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that 
effect are legally void ; and that acts of violence, within any State or 
States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or 
revolutionai'y, according to the circumstances."' 

Mr. Lincoln, upon his own showing, is pledged to regard the taking 
possession of those forts by the State authority as " insurrectionary or 
revolutionary." To make the matter more specific, however, if there 



(557) 

could be any doubt about words of such plain import, we bave the fol- 
lowi ng : 

" The power confided to rne will be used to hold, occupy and possess 
the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the 
duties on imports." 

Is it true that he says, as the Senator supposes, that there will be no 
bloodshed or violence ? He says : 

" But beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be 
no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere." 

What does that mean? It means that Mr. Lincoln will not use force 
upon obedient men. He does not do it in the District of Columbia. I pre- 
sume he does not propose to do it anywhere throughout the Union. 
Those men who obey the laws he will not make war against ; but he in- 
tends to compel everybody to obedience. The honorable Senator from 
Illinois knows very well tliat the States wliich have seceded claim that 
they are free from all obligation to pay taxes to this Government, and 
that they have a right to occupy those forts. Mr. Lincoln says he will 
compel them to pay taxes to this Government, and that he has a right 
to occupy those forts, and will do it to the extent of his ability ; and if 
they submit, there will be no bloodshed. Suppose that I say that I 
intend to occupy the house of the honorable Senator from Illinois, con- 
trary to all right, as he thinks, and I declare to him, "there will be no 
force or violence if you sul)mit and give up possession to me ;" every- 
body knows that my declaration, that I did not desire violence, would 
not amount to anything if 1 declared a purpose to do an unlawful act, 
or an act that he regarded as unlawful. The States that have seceded 
regard their right to the forts within their limits as just as good as any 
man regards the right to his own house. They do not mean to be turned 
out of them excei)t by force ; and hence, when the President says he 
intends to execute the laws and take possession of the public property, of 

course, if that be attempted, a collision is inevitable. 

* •};- * * -:v * * * 

But, Mr. President, I say the practical question is now upon us : shall 
we have these forts taken ; shall we have a collision; shall there be an 
attempt to collect the revenue in the seceding States or not? It will 
not do to ask the countiy to wait two or tlii'ee or more years, as the 
Senator from JSTew York suggested, to obtain constitutional amendments. 
If Mr. Lincoln intends to use the power in his hands, as he states in his 
inaugural, we must have war. If he does not, I think he is unfortunate 
in his declarations. If I were a friend of the President, I should advise 
him to withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. They 
are of no earthly use there. The only effect of their presence is to irri- 
tate those States. Will those States stand still while Mr. Lincoln calls 
Congress together to get the force bill enacted which is suggested ? I 
doubt if they will do so. It seems to me the true policy for his friends 
and him to take is, to withdraw those troops, and leave the other ques- 
tions, if there be other questions, for negotiation. I would suspend all 
attempts to execute, not merely the Post Office laws, but the revenue 
laws especially. It is no concession to the Government to decline to 
carry the mails, because it is not so much for the advantage of the Gov- 
ernment as the people. I shall not, however, Mr. President, further 
take up the time of the Senate. 



(558) 



REMARKS 

ON THE WAR POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION, DELIVERED 
IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE, MARCH 19, 1861. 

Mr. Clingman said : 

Mr. President. VVJien I took the floor yesterday, I was about to call 
the attention of tlie Senator from New Hampshire, [Mr. Hale,] whose 
course of remark I thouo-ht rendered it legitimate for me to do so, to 
one point in connection with a subject that he alluded to ; and I 
avail myself of this occasion to call his attention, and that of other Sen- 
ators, to the subject. 

It will be recollected, Mr. President, that when the Senator from Con- 
necticut, (Mr. Dixon) offered a resolution to print the inaugural, I ex- 
pressed the opinion that it meant war ; that the policy of the President 
as there indicated, must necessarily lead to war; and I so characterized 
it. The honorable Senator from Illinois, not at this moment in his seat, 
(Mr. Douglas,) expressed a different opinion ; and 1)ringing to the view 
of the Senate several statements made in it, argued that its policy was 
that of peace. Since then the honorable Senator from Illinois has 
argued at considerable length, and with great force, and I admit that 
some of the facts to wdiich he alluded did tend very ranch to bring my 
mind to the conclusion that the President, after all, might not attempt 
to carry out what he declared to be his duty. 

I had some hope, from the array of facts presented by the honorable 
Senator from Illinois, that the policy of the Administration might not 
be one calculated or intended to involve us inevitably in civil war; but 
there is one pregnant difficulty in the way ; and if the honorable Sen- 
ator from New Hampshire, or any other Senator, can relieve my mind 
on that point, I should be very much gratified. If the policy be (as has 
been contended by the Senator from Illinois and others) one of peace, 
why should it not be announced ? Everybody knows that the country 
is suffering, that commerce is paralyzed, that manufacturers are de- 
pressed, that stocks are down, that there is a general stagnation and 
distress throughout the land ; and, as has been well said by the Senator 
from Illinois, if the Administration would announce a peaceful policy, 
we should at once be relieved from these difficulties. Why shoidd it 
not be done, if that, in fact, be the policy ? Everybody will see that it 
is eminently important that it should be so; but if, on the other hand, a 
different policy be intended, I can well understand why it should, for 
the time, be concealed ; and I ap))rehend, and I am forced very reluc- 
tantly to the conclusion, that it is the settled policy of those in power 
to involve us very soon in civil war. Their silence is pregnant, to my 
mind. Suppose that were the policy; what would the Government do ? 
Would it indicate it at once ? By no means. The Government troops 
are scattered far and wide over the country. Two or three thousand of 
them, perhaps, are in Texas ; and if war wei'e declared at once, there 
can be no doubt that the people of Texas could make prisoners of that 
portion of the army. The troo'js that the Government has, are not 



1 559 ) 

only scattered far and wide, but its ships are on every sea. I under- 
stand, and I presume there is no doubt about the fact, that orders have 
gone to tlie Mediterranean and to the distant stations, to bring our ships 
home. Why ? If there is a peaceful policy intended, why should our 
ships be brought out of the Mediterranean ? Are they not as necessary 
now at that point as they ever were ? Why is such an immense arma- 
ment being collected at J^ew York ? For if we are to believe the 
newspapers and private corres[M>ndence, there is a larger number of 
ships of war there now than has ever been collected on our coast at any 
one time in the last twenty years. 

Mr. Grimes. I think they have not been ordered home from the 
Mediterranean. 

Mr, Clingman. It is so stated. I do not know what the fact may be. 
Mr. Clark. It was so stated during Buchanan's administration. 
Mr, Clingman. I will ask the honorable Senator from Iowa — and 
shall be obliged to him for the information — does he believe that distant 
ships at the Mediterranean and elsewhere have not been ordered home ? 
Mr. Grimes. I made enquiries a day or two since on that subject, 
and learned that they had not been ordered home from the Mediter- 
ranean. I made the inquiry of those who I supposed were informed. 

Mr. Clingman. Tlieu, I take that to be true. Have they been 
ordered home from distant stations anywhere? Perhaps the Senator 
can inform me. 

Mr. Grimes. I have no knowledge on that sul)ject. 
Mr. Clingman. The Senator has no knowledge on that subject, but 
only in reference to the Mediterranean. I am very much pleased to 
hear what he has stated as to that, but it is rumored that ships stationed 
at distant places have been ordered home ; and it is strange that the 
Senator should inquire as to the Mediterranean and not inquire as to the 
others. 

Mr. Grimes. Not at all. I was interested as to jiarties on board 
some of the vessels there. 

Mr. Clingman. Then I will take that explanation, that the inquiry 
as to the Mediterranean, was accidental, or, at least, not connected with 
this particular subject. My very purpose was to get information of 
that kind. 

Now, sir, I come to the point which I wish to put to honorable Sena- 
tors. There can be no doubt that troops are being drawn in from dis- 
tant places and collected together, and that a number of ships are 
taking in sup])lies. If the policy of the Administration were war, of 
course it would conceal it until it was ready to strike ; it would require 
several weeks until a movement was nuide. I will state in this connec- 
tion, that I have information within the last two or three days which 
leads me to believe that troops and heavy guns are to be sent South to 
take possession of the forts in Noith Carolina, Virginia, and elsewhere. 
This has been brought to my ears within a few days from sources that I 
rely on. How the fact will turn out, I am not prepared to say ; but I 
do say, that if that result follows, I shall regard it as evidence of a pur- 
pose to make war. I need only call Senators' minds to what occurred 
two months ago. About two months ago there was a report that troops 
were sent South, and that war measures were to be inaugurated ; and 



(560) 

thereupon some of raj CA'n constituents went into tlie forts of the Gov- 
ernment and took possession of them. They were very soon informed 
however, that this was erroneous information, and they were evacuated ; 
they were evacuated by order of the Governor, and the people have 
remained quiet ever since. If we are to have a state of peace, the Gov- 
ernment, and you and I, all know, that those forts are in no danger of 
occupation ; but if war measures are to be inaugurated, then it is very 
natural that the Government should send troops down to take possession 
of them; and I say, frankly, that I think the country is entitled to 
know from the Administration, and to know from Senators who are in 
a position to understand, what we are to expect ; for if there be a policy 
to occupy the forts in the Confederate States, and to collect the revenue, 
we all know that is war. It is idle foi- gentlemen to talk about words, 
to speak of what is war, and what is peace; you and I and all of us 
know, as was well and ably, argued by the Senator from Illinois, that if 
that be attempted, we have war. I wish to know it. 

Mr. Clark. The honorable Senator will permit me. Allusion has 
been made several times to the Senators on this side, to their being 
mute; and it has been said that they could state the policy of the 
Administration if they would. Now, let me say to the honorable Sen- 
ator, that I know of no person on this side who has any information on 
the subject. I have no reason to believe that any person knows any 
more than has been stated in the inaugnral ; and the honorable Senator 
and other Senators on that side can put their interpretation on that just 
as we can. We have no authority, and I think no knowledge, from 
which we- can state to Senators on' the other side. 

Mr. Clingman. It is a little extraordinary that Senators, occupying 
the relation they do towards the Administration should not know what 
are its purposes. They know that, while I interpreted the inaugural 
one way, the Sepator from Illinois interpreted it very differently. They 
know that the country is divided on the subject. It was said by the 
Senator from Massachusetts that they had only been eight or ten' days 
in power, and had not had time, perhaps, to determine their policy. 
Now I say the country has a right to know what it is to expect. The 
present state of tilings cannot continue long without collision. If this 
Government threatens, the Confederate States will not wait until it has 
organized powerful armaments, and pounced down upon them. If the 
Government's policy be to provoke collision, and say it is not respon- 
sible, it seems to me it is taking proper coarse to do it. If I should 
continue to threaten a man, and decline to give him any explanations, it 
would not be sui-prising if he should anticipate me, and begin the contest. 

Mr. Clark. Will the Senator pardon me for again interrupting him ? 
I do not do it in any tactions spirit. 

Mr. Clingman. I do not suppose any such thing. I am happy to 
hear the Senator. 

Mr. Clark, He speaks of the threats of this Administration. If he 
will look at the inaugural, he will see that the President says there can 
be no assault on his part ; the President will assail nobody. Instead of 
being a threat, I think it should be received as he intended— the Gov- 
ernment will assail nobody. 



(561) 

Mr. Clingman. But the President said tliis Government would pos- 
sess and occupy its forts in the Confederate States. The Senator nods 
his assent. The Government says: "we intend to take possession of 
Fort Moultrie and Fort Pulaski, and the other forts of which the State 
authoi-ities have got possession ; they are our property ; we are going to 
take possession of them ; there will be no war, no bloodshed, if you 
submit." Tliat is the amount of it. Am I to enter into an argument 
with the honorable Senator to prove what I know — and he must know, 
too, Utako it, so that I cannot enlighten him on that point — that that nec- 
essarily provokes collision 'i Mr. Lincoln says: " I intend to make you 
pay taxes to the Government, which you say you do not owe; you say 
you are independent; I deny it; you are as much a part of the Union 
as you ever were ; you are bound to pay the taxes; you must let us 
occupy the forts we have in your territory ; it depends on you whether 
there shall l)e bloodshed ; if you submit, there will l)e none at all." In 
other words, " if you obey, I will not strike you ; if you disobey my 
commands, if you decline to give up those forts, if you refuse to pay the 
revenue which' I intend to collect of you, your blood will be on your 
own heads." That is the result to which we are brought. True, Mr. 
Lincoln says it is not a threat. Oh, no ! no threat ! I go to a man and 
say, " I intend to do as I please with your property, or what you con- 
sider your property ; and if you resort to force, you must thank your- 
self only for your suffering, if it falls on you." 

I am very glad to get even this explanation from the Senator from 
New Hampshire. It shows an evidence on his part of a willingness cour- 
teously to give me all the information he can. And what is it? " That 
if you submit to the policy of the Government — if you surrender back 
the forts or allow the Government to take them, and pay duties to it, 
there is peace ; otherwise, you have war." And, as was well argued by 
the honorable Senator froni Illinois, that is necessarily war. There is no 
Senator here who would pretend that you could collect revenue or occu- 
py the forts witiiout a collision of arms; and honorable Senators do not 
mislead anyl)ody by us different terms. If any other Senator could go 
further than the Senator from New Hampshire, I should be gratified.^ 

I have made these remarks, Mr. President, with no view of producing 
irritation ; but seeing the condition of the country, and the apprehension 
that now prevails, I was very much in hopes that something might come 
out from the other side indicative of a peaceful disposition on the part 
of the Administration. I wish no war. No one can wish it, I take it. 
I hope the Senator from New Hampshire, (Mr. Hale,) who has heard 
what his colleague has said, if he can say anything further to relieve us, 
will. He concluded his speech with some sentiments that were very 
patriotic. Fie declared, if I understood him aright, that if States were 
discontented, if they were thoroughly dissatisfied with the Union, rather 
than use force to compel them to remain in, he would let two other dis- 
contented States go with them, or words to that effect. That is a ])olicy 
wliich I understand. It is frank and manly, and I think patriotic ; and 
if the Administrator adopts that policy, there will be no collision. 

But, Mr. President, there is another difficulty in the way, and we 
might as well talk frankly. I know it is present to the minds of Sena- 
tors on the other side, and they must see the difficulty. The honorable 
71 ' 



(562) 

Senator from Rhode Island, (Mr. Simtnons,) particularly, who engi- 
neered the tariff bill throngh, of course sees the difKcultj. Well, why 
should we not talk together frankly as Senators about it? The revenues 
under that tariff bill cannot be collected anywhere, I think, if the decla- 
rations which gentlemen make are to be acted out. If they are to hold 
that all the Confederate States are in the Union, and that you are to 
have no custom houses on the line between them and the other States, 
what will be the result? Goods will come into New Orleans, Charles- 
ton, Mobile, and other places ; they will come in paying a low tariff, 
and merchants from Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio, if they 
choose to go down there and buy goods, will take them home and pay 
no duties. No man from the Northwest will go to New York, and pay 
a duty of fifty per cent, on goods that he can get at fifteen or twenty 
per cent, duty at New Orleans. That will be the course of trade, of 
course. Senators must see that j^ou cannot have two tariffs, one high 
and one low, in operation in the country at once, with any effect pro- 
duced by the high tariff. If you go to a man and say: "You may pay 
me a high price or a low price for an article," you will never get the 
high ]>rice. When, therefore, you attempt to carry out the new tai'iff', 
which contains rates, I think, of fifty per cent., and some of one hun- 
dred per cent., and some even above one hundred ]jer cent., you cannot 
collect those rates at Boston and New York and Philadelphia, while the 
men who want to consume the goods can get them by paying a duty of 
only one-third as much. That is impossible. I take it, therefore, that 
all gentlemen must see that, in the present condition of things, matters 
cannot stand. If the independence of those States be recognized, and 
you establish a line of custom houses along them, you may make us in 
North Carolina, for example, pay as high duties as you ])lease. I do not 
like to pay them, and I do not think my people will ; but I tell Sena- 
tors that, if matters stand as they noVr are, the merchants from my region 
will go down to Charleston, as they often do, and buy goods under alow 
tariff. They would rather do that than go north and buy them under 
a hio;h tariff". That will be the effect. You will o-et no revenue, there- 
fore, under your high tariff', in a little time, if this discrepancy is to 
continue. 

Then, I presume, it is not intended to be so. I presume the Senator 
from Rhode Island, and those who acted with him, did not intend the 
tariff, which has been lately passed, to be a mere farce, a mere thing on 
paper, not to be acted out. Of course, the mean to get duties under it 
in some way or other. If 3'ou do not mean to have your line of custom 
houses along the border of the Confederate States, you must expect to 
stop importations there. How will you do it ? I know you cannot do it 
legally without new legislation ; you cannot do it without calling Congress 
together, and having laws passed to enable you to do it. How far the 
limits of the Constitution will restrain it, is a question which may be 
argued hereafter ; but it impossible that things shall stand in this way. 
and therefore I regard that as furnishiTig a pregnant circumstance also, to 
show that the policy of the Administration is necessarily a hostile one. 
I should be glad to believe otherwise. I should l)e very much gratified 
indeed, as a Senator and an individual, if the Senator from New Hamp- 



( 563 ) 

shire, or the Senator from Rhode Island, or anybody else, could trive me 
such assurances as I should like to have. 

My pur}>ose, Mr. President, was not to discuss the general question, 
but to state why it is that I cannot adopt the view of the Senator from 
Illinois ; why I think all the tracks now point in one direction, and that 
is towards collision and war. 

Mr. Hale. The Senator from North Carolina spoke to me once last 
evenini^, and once this morning. I will answei" him as far as I can, and 
I will do it frankly ; and let me say, when I do so, I answer as 1 do be- 
cause it is the truth, and not because I have any fault to find with any- 
body. I know no more what the Administration intend than that Sena- 
tor does. I have no more means of knowing what they intend, than 
that Senator has. I presume he has been consulted just as frequently 
and as intimately as I have been ; and I know he has given as much 
advice to the President, and to each and every head of a Department, 
as I have, and has heard as much from them. 

Mr. Clingman. I can only say to the honorable Senator that I have 
not communicated with one of them, either verbally or in writing ; so 
that, if his relations are like ray own, he is certainly very distant from 
them. 

Mr. Hale. Well, sir, that is just the case with me. (Laughter.) I 
have neither corresponded nor consulted with the President or any head 
of a Department, verbally or in writing, in reference to any single sub- 
ject of public policy, nor in regard to a single appointment that they 
have made — not one. 

Mr. Clingman. Will the honorable Senator allow me to add one other 
word ? 

Mr. Hale. Yes. 

Mr. Clingman. I think — and I say this in good faith and in all sin- 
cerity—it indicates a very great want of intelligence on the part of the 
Administration that the Senator has not been consulted, both on account 
of his position in the party, which would give him great w-eight,^and 
also on account of that ability and acquaintance with the affairs of the 
Government which he possesses. I say this rather with regret, as evinc- 
ing a want of that statesmanship on the part of the Administration that 
I think it ought to possess. 



INCREDULITY ABOUT WAR. 



It may seem strange now that such a delusion should have existed, but so 
little apprehension then prevailed in the public mind that war was imminent, 
that occasionally such remarks as these were made to me, derisively: "Well, 
Clingman, when is your war to begin? Where are your fighting men? I 
do not see any of them in the streets." Now and then a Northern man would 
say, " I wish some of your people would commit an overt act, so that we 
might hang two or three, and make them quit their boasting and behave 
better." A Senator from the extreme Southwest said to me one day, "Cling- 
man, there will be no war; but if it does begin, we will end it by marching 



(564) 

up to Massachusetts, and blowing up Plymouth rock and throwing it into 
the sea," 

When Mr, Lincoln did come in, liis policy was evidently unsettled. Though 
not perhaps averse to a small war, to be finished by blockading a few ports, 
yet he did not Avish to undertake " a big job," as he afterwai'ds called it, 
against the majority of the Southern States. Such was his hesitation that at 
the close of the extra session, towards the end of March, I began to think he 
would let matters rest as they were, and call a session of Congress, to consider 
the condition of the country. On my return to Washington, after two or three 
days absence in New York, I inet Mr. Crawford, one of the Southern Com- 
missioners, and asked him the news, "Very bad," he answered, "it now looks 
as if we were to have war." In answer to my enquiring as to what had pro- 
duced the change of. policy, he said that it was in part due to the action of 
the Virginia Convention in voting, by a large majority, againt secession. This 
action, after the failure of the peace conference, he said had encouraged the 
administration to believe that they would have only the cotton States to fight, 
and they felt confident that the government would be able without difficulty 
to put thoni down. It has since been made public that up to about this period 
ihe administration was rather disinclined to resort to war. A member of Mr. 
Lincoln's cabinet told me in the summer of 1866, that at this time Mr. Lin- 
coln, Mr. Seward, and every member of the cabinet, except my informant, 
were in favor of letting Anderson retire from Fort Sumter, as soon as his pro- 
visions were exhausted. This gentleman told me that he individually remon- 
strated against such a course, saying that if it were taken, in six weeks every 
foreign government would recognize the Confederacy. This argument fail- 
ing, he threatened to resign as a member of the cabinet, and at length thus 
induced them to resolve to assist Anderson, and therefore they sent a notice to 
Governor Pickens that the armistice was ended. Mr. Secretary Wells confirms 
this statement, for he said in his controversy with Mr. Adams, that the Presi- 
dent, and every member of the cabinet except one, were in favor of this 
})olicy. He even charges that Mr. Seward purposely, with artful strategy, 
caused tlie ships of the government to be sent out of the way, so as to i-ender 
it impossible to attempt to reinforce Anderson. There can be no doubt, I 
think, that Mr. Seward was sincere, at least, in his assurances to many persons 
that Sumter and Pickens would be abandoned by the govenmient. Li fact, 
Mr. Seward's demeanor in the Senate after the States had begun to secede, 
satisfied me that he had been greatly surprised by the action of the States- 
Such was his mental constitution that he could not understand that any one 
would attempt an enterprise of hazard and difficulty, unless there seemed to 
be a prospect of material advanl age. He was, therefore, evident ly amazed with 
the developments, and when we occasioiuilly met and conversed, his manner 
reminded me of a man who had suddenly and most unexpectedly seen a ghost. 
He evidently at this time desired peace, and doubtless acted as represented by 
his colleagues in the cabinet. 

These facts tend to show how near we were of escaping war at that time. 
Had either North Carolina, or Tennessee, or Virginia, shown a purpose to act 
with the Confederacy before the fight at Sumter, instead of war there would 
have been an appeal to Congress, to ascertain if an accommodation could not 
be made; and, in the event of failure, it is not unlikely that the " erring sis- 
ters" would have been allowed to "go in peace," and Lincoln would have 
" run the machine as he found it," to use his homely but striking phrase. Per- 
sons may find interesting reading on this subject in some of the editorials of 
New York Tribune after Virginia did take action. 



(565) 

SINGULAR FALLACY. 

Attempts have sometimes been made to create the impression tliiit the late 
civil war was mainly, if not entirely, owing to a difference of opinion between 
the Northern and Sonthern peojde, as to whether we should have a consoli- 
dated or a federal system of government. Nothing is further from the truth, 
and no view is more superficial than this. In fact, the people of New Eng- 
land are as strongly in favor of local government per se as any people on 
earth. I know of none more averse to all foreign control, or more anxious 
to have their own way, in all that concerns them as a people. It may be 
remembered that when they were resisting the fugitive slave law, they fell back 
on State's riglits principles, and such men as Charles Sumner, Ben Wade and 
others of that class, began to eulogise the Virginia resolution of 1V98, just as 
when the Federalists of New England opposed "Jim Madison's war" against 
Great Britain, they, in the Hartfoi-d Convention, advocated thei-ight of seces- 
sion. 

Why, then, in the late contest, did they insist on enlarging the powers of 
the genei'al government ? The answer is clear and conclusive to any one who 
will look at the the facts. It will appear from the debates in the Convention 
which formed the Federal Constitution, that the }>rinciple inducement to the 
New England States to form the Union was to obtain such benefits as they 
expected to derive from navigation and tariff laws. It may be remembered 
that Mr. Rufus l^ng said, he " liad always expected that as the Southern 
States are the richest, they would not league themselves with the Northern, 
unless some respect was paid to their superior wealth. If the latter expect 
those preferential distinctions in commerce, and other advantages, which 
they will derive from the connection, they mnst not expect to receive them 
witiiout allowing some advantages in return." Though, in fact, the North- 
eastern States did make a great deal of money out of the Southern, and after 
a while, the Western States, by reason of tariffs and navigation laws, yet still 
their demands became more and more exorbitant, and they were provoked 
by the opposition they met, chiefly in the South. 

The Abolitionists also saw tliatthey could not reach slavery in the Southern 
States, except through the action of the Federal government, and hence they 
combined with those who merely wished to convert the government into a 
money making machiue for their own use. These parties thus combined, 
therefore, to effect their several purposes, in tlie only mode in which it was 
practicable for them to succeed. 

Let us illustrate the operation by supposing a case like this: There were in 
a small town a number of thieves, who wished to rob the citizens, but who 
found themselves powerless to carry out their designs. They know, how- 
ever, that there are five hundred muskets in the arsenal of the town. Their 
leaders assert, that by the law of tiie country, the citizens are entitled to bear 
arms, and insist that these arms ought to be distributed to the people. The 
town authorities object, regarding the operation as wholly unnecessary. The 
contest is kept up for a long time, and with much acrimony and heat. At 
length the authorities give way, and agree that the arms may be handed out 
to such citizens as desire them, on their ])romis<! to keep them in good condi- 
tion. The greater part of the citizens are careless, so that the thieves, acting 
in concert, secure the weapons. Soon after this, they, during the night, fire 
the town, rob it, and in the contest kill a nutnber of the citizens. What 
would be thought of a historian, who narrating these events, should say that 
the town had been destroyed, because a contest arose among the people as to 



( 566' ) 

the point, whether or not the citizens had a right to bear amis ? Such an 
historian would be as wise, and as pi'ofound, as are those who represent the 
late contest as having grown out of a difference of opinion between the North 
and the South as to the extent of the powers that ought to be recognized as 
belonging to the Federal government. 



POPULAR DELUSIONS. 



The consideration of the facts refeired to in the course of this publication, 
will tend to impress the mind with some interesting phenomena of a political 
and moral character. On a first view of the subje(;t it would seem that in a 
country like the United States, abounding as it does in 'newspapers, railroads 
and telegraphs, and with a people remarkable for their love of newspaper 
reading and travelling, it would seem, I say, impossible that a general open 
condition of opinion should prevail in one or more of the States, without that 
state of opinion becoming generally known in other sections of the Union, in 
the course of a few years. Such, however, was not the fact, and the people 
of large sections of the country remained for a long period profoundly igno- 
rant of the state of feeling, and even of the actual physical condition of 
other large districts. 

Four remarkably strange delusions may be noticed. Two of them pre- 
vailed in the South and two in the North, First, almost the entire body of 
Whigs in the South for years remained in profound ignorance of the opinions 
and political action of the majority of their party in the Northern States, on 
a question so important that it, in their opinion, involved the continuance, or 
destruction of the common government. This state of things continued in 
the face of the most decided public action, by votes, and speeches, and news- 
paper articles, 

A second delusion affected a large portion of the Southern Democrats- 
They were deluded with the idea that the people of the North, though they 
loved the Union for its profits, would not go to war for it, or even if they did, 
the fight would be made so feebly, and on so diminuative a scale, that one of 
the cotton States would have been able to resist it. 

The two delusions in the North were perhaps even more remarkable. 
Though the publications of the productions of the Southern States as made 
in the census and other ofiicial reports, as well as all reliable evidence, rendered 
it clear that the amount of provisions produced in the slaveholding States, 
and their capacity to support themselves if left alone, excelled those of the 
Northern States, yet the general opinion of the North ignored all this. It 
was asserted with such repetition and and confidence in the abolition news- 
papers, and those sympathizing with them, and reiterated by popular speakers 
so incessantly, that the majority of the people were made to believe that the 
South would perish, if the North did not suppoit it. It was affirmed that 
the South had not intelligence and energy enough to make its own axe helves. 
These things were so incessantly proclaimed, that in time men like General 
Scott came to believe them; and Mr. Seward really appeared to think that 
none of the Southern States would be guilty of the folly of seceding, and 
even when they did attempt it, they would, like the prodigal son, soon return 
to escape starvation. 

I remember that one day in the House, I had a conversation with a mem- 
ber from the interior of the State of New York, who asserted that from the 



(567) 

foundation of the government, there liad been no increase in the white pop- 
ulation of the Soutli. So vehement was he in his assertion, that I sent to the 
library for the census rejiort, and to his great astonishment he saw, that if the 
foreign immigration were deducted, the increase of po{)uhition in the Southern 
States had been greater than it was in the North, even among the white popu- 
lation alone. 

When Mr. Giddings would declare as he usually did once or twice in the 
House during each session, that the United States, mighty as it was, was not 
powerful enough to kick the little State of South Carolina out of the Union, 
but that she would hold on to it as a drowning man to his only plank, the 
broad grin over the countenances of the Northern members, showed clearly 
that not only did all the Whigs entertain this o])inion, but that also many 
Democrats sympathized Avith the speaker. Probably, if not on that very day, 
at any rate befoi'e the end of a week, some well meaning Southern Whig- 
would declare that they could not be induced to secede, l)ut that they would 
die by the glorious Union. 

Such dechirations not only encouraged Giddhigs and his friends, but mate- 
rially aided to produce the second delusion to be mentioned. 

It was a prevalent opinion in the Noi-th that even if the South were to 
attempt resistance, it would make such a feeble fight as to be very easily put 
down. When Watson Webb said, in the columns of the New York Courier 
and Enquirer, that the seventh regiment of the city volunteers could conquer 
the Southern States, that declaration was accepted as not unreasonable. On 
one occasion, I stated in a sjK^ech in the House, that the Southern States 
could maintain in the field at least one hundred and fifty thousand men, and 
thereupon the N'ational Intelligencer declared that I had beaten Bissell, of 
Illinois, in bragging, and that thereafter I was to be i-egarded as the greatest 
boaster of the day. 

Unless my memory is greatly in error, a number of the New York Tribune^ 
which came through' the lines in the spring of 1861, contained an editorial 
defending Mr. Lincoln from the charge of extravagance in calling for so many 
as seventy-five thousand men to serve for three months. The editor stated 
that twenty-five thousand men were needed to conquer the South, that owing 
to the extent of its territory, twenty-five thousand moi-e would be needed to 
hold the country after it was conquered, and that the remaining twenty-five 
thousand would form a proper reserve to be held for any unforeseen emer- 
gency. 

Inasmuch as the Southern people were accused of being personally too pug- 
nacious, and as they had in the war of 1812, and that against Mexico, placed 
in the field a much largei- number of men than the North, when the relative 
populations of the two section were considei-ed, why did such a delusion pre- 
vail *? The errors both in the Noith an<l the South were due to the fact that 
the speakers and papers in each section, for party purposes, sought to make 
the impressions that were, in a political point, advantageous to them. And 
hence, the most striking facts were ignored, kept out of view, or denied. 

We have at present similar illustrations of the i)ower of party leaders and 
presses to deceive the masses. Though perhaps more than fifty thousand 
men from the Northein States have been in Noith Carolina without molesta- 
tion in person or projierty, yet I am often asked in the Noi-th, by persons who 
daily read the newspapers, the question, " When will it be safe for a North- 
ern man to go into your State?" In other words, newspapers are just as 
potent to teach error as truth, and hence people in the North really know less 
of this State, than they do of foreign countries. 

Delusions like these on both sides led to the war. I recollect that as early 



(568) 

as the year 1850, Senator Westcott, of Florida, said to me, "There will be no 
war, for both sides are afraid; the North would run if it believed the South 
would fight, and the South would run if it believed the North would fight." 
I told him, that in the very fact he stated consisted the danger; that I once 
saw a fight between two men, each of whom knew the other to be an arrant 
coward, and that while each of them expected the other to run, as they were 
advancing, they got together and had to fight it out, and that I expected the 
collision to occur,in this way, if it did at all. 

With our present information, on a survey of the past, is it not clear that 
with a better understanding of the facts we should have escaped the col- 
lision. Suppose it could have been, by one in whom there was full con- 
fidence, stated to the people of the North, " When you have continued the 
war for years, and have placed in the field more than twomilUons of soldiers, 
and incurred a debt of more than two thousand million dollars, you will not 
have been able to capture either Richmond or Charleston," is it not almost 
certain that a different action would have been taken by the people of the 
North ? And if, on the other hand, the people of the South had foreseen the 
magnitude of the armies to be brought against them, would they have been 
divided into three factions, as they in fact were, or have allowed themselves 
to be managed as they did in the movements which preceded the war ? 



CONCLUSION OF THE SLAVERY DISCUSSION. 

Persons wlio may read this publication, will, I think, see that, profit- 
ing by the information I obtained during my first term in Congress, 
my efforts were mainly directed to two great objects. 

In the first place, to the reduction of the tariff taxes, and the 
diminution of expenditures, so as to lighten as much as possible the 
public burden. This policy was attended with complete success, and 
the tariff was reduced to a rate of only twenty-four per cent, on the 
higher articles. The free list had, by the efforts mainly of the manu- 
facturers, been made too large, but the imposition of not more than 
twenty per cent, duties, on certain articles included in it, would, with 
the taxes already collected on the protected articles, have furnished 
all the revenue needed for the legitimate expenses of the government. 
In fact, the condition of the United States was, in the year 1860, one 
of the highest general prosperity. 

In the second place, regarding the slavery issue as of paramount 
importance in its consequences, my efforts were earnestly and perse- 
veringly directed to effect one of four things. 

The first effort was by discussion and argument, to diffuse such in- 
formation among the people of the North, as to induce a majority of 
them, to rest satisfied with the existing system, which had been estab- 



(569) 

lished by the founders of the government, and which, it seemed to 
me, could not be materially changed without great violations of the 
Constitution, and at the same time inflicting immense social and 
pecuniary losses on the country. If the existing system were main- 
tained, the natural increase of the slaves would, in less than a century, 
justify an extension of our territory, until we should occupy that por- 
tion of Mexico which bordered the Gulf, and ultimately Central 
America and the West India islands. The result of this movement 
would have been, that the civilized world could have obtained its 
cotton, sugar, rice, coffee, and other tropical productions, on the best 
terms that it was practicable to furnish them. The benefit, in a ma- 
terial point of view, obtained by the Northern States, would have been 
even greater, than that of the South. Intelligent Northern men, who 
were neither abolitionists nor manufacturers, often admitted this. Even 
Gerritt Smith (the only abolitionist that I ever knew, whom I regarded 
as honest,) said in a speech at Richmond, Virginia, since the war, that 
slavery was like a cow with her head in the South and her body in 
the North, and that "while the South fed her, the North milked her." 

If this system had been carried out, the negroes would not only 
have been far better off materially, than was their race in Africa, but 
their condition would have compared most favorably with the laboring 
population of many European countries, and it was immeasureably 
superior to that of the East Indians and Coolies, who were killed by 
the million annually, through the operations of Great Britain. 

Secondly; on finding that this result could not be attained by dis- 
cussion, I endeavored to induce our government to meet the insidious, 
and most dangerous system of warfare, that Great Britain was waging 
against us, by an open war on her. In that event the Abolitionists 
would, as her organs boasted, have taken her side in the contest, and 
thus like the old Federal party, but in a much greater degree, they 
would have been rendered so odious, as to be harmless for half a cen ■ 
tury. Such a war while it would have been far less costly to us, in 
men and money, than was the late civil war, would have given us the 
British possessions north of us, larger in extent than our present ter- 
ritory. The whole North American continent might thus have been 
embraced within our dominions, and in less than a century, our popu- 
lation would have exceeded that of Europe. By maintaining our 
federative plan of government, and permitting the States to manage 
all local matters, our system could have been perpetuated without 
difficulty, and no empire that has existed, would have been comparable 
72 



{ 570 ) 

to ours, either in its extent, its power, or in the vastness of the benefits 
it would have conferred on humanity. 

The imbecility of the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan, ren- 
dered them careless about all questions of foreign policy, and instead, 
they weakly directed their attention, and that of the country, wholly 
to the domestic quarrel, and thus materially advanced and hastened 
the catastrophe. 

In the third place; these two previous plans having failed, the effort 
was to unite the Southern States in feeling and action, so tliat they 
might, in an imposing manner, say to the North, "Let us come to a 
fair understanding as to this matter. If you are not willing to con- 
tinue the system of our fathers, then let us part in peace and on fair 
terms." An appeal thus made, I thought, would have led either to a 
fair accommodation, or to a peaceable separation. 

Fourthly how^ever; if neither of these results could be attained, 
then the South being thus united, would have been able to protect 
itself by force of arras. 

It seemed in the beginning of the year I860, that we might fairly 
calculate on one of the two latter alternatives. Men of all parties in 
the South, began to see, that the North was in substance, as to its elec- 
toral vote, almost solidly united against our section, with a settled pur- 
pose, on the part of the leaders of the dominant party, to disregard the 
restrictions and limitations of the Constitution, and overthrow by force, 
if necessary, our social system. It was evidently practicable to unite 
the body of the South for defense. Clearly every principle of justice, 
and every motive of interest impelled us, thus to come together. 

And yet, in the face of all these most powerful considerations, several 
persons, who from their former declarations, ought to have been expected 
to be the foremost in perfecting the union of the South, went deliberately 
to work to produce distraction and weakness, rather than strength. If 
many persons had labored for years to erect a great edifice, and at the 
moment when it was about to be completed, some of its pretended 
zealous friends, should industriously undermine and destroy it, such 
conduct on their part would find its parallel in the action of some of 
the pretended friends of the South at this period. So extraordinary 
was their conduct, so much was it at variance with the usual action of 
men thus situated, that we are reminded of the declaration, "the 
gods first make mad those that they intend shall be destroyed." . 

The tyranny and wickedness of Pharoah, drove the Israelites out of 
the fat land of Goshen, into Palestine: while there, hewing wood and 



(571) 

drawing water for the Philistines, served to correct their wickedness 
and idolatry. The act of Judas Iscariot, gave to humanity its greatest 
blessing. The extraordinary combination of circumstances, which led 
to such momentous results in our recent history, seems to carry a con- 
viction to the mind, that the actors were instruments prepared to 
effect such purposes. No mere numerical calculation of chances 
appears sufficient to account for such a line of action. 

It seems so wonderfully strange that, in the same century, and in 
the same country there should exist in contact, and with opportunity 
to act together, two such men as James Buchanan and' Jefferson Davis, 
so plausible, so insincere, so selfish, so resentful and vindictive 
that all considerations in opposition to the gratification of these 
feelings, were ignored; and at the same time so childishly feeble in 
action for good, and so absolutely destitute of all administrative abil- 
ity. And then, that they should have been able to delude so many 
persons, and secure their co-operation ; while Douglas, as their oppo- 
nent, lost his temper and judgment entirely, and thus assisted their 
operations. 

If all these concurring circumstances could be presented together, 
men's minds would find it almost impossible to resist the conclusion 
that the effects produced, have as overwhelming evidence in favor of 
their being Providentially directed movements, as any other recorded 
in profane history. 

It may be all the better for us in the South so to regard it. Thus 
accepted we can bear it with more resignation, and again move forward 
with a higher heart, to recover all, and more than all, that we have 
lost. Though placed by our adversaries (who sought to give the 
negro race an advantage over us) in a worse position than were the 
Spaniards in St. Domingo, we have not succumbed as they did, but 
have maintained our upright attitude. 

Remember that after so many of our best men were slain in battle; 
after our territory was so wasted that it seemed impossible to escape 
starvation; after our State governments had all been purposely 
destroyed; after every vestige of civil administration had been oblit- 
erated, and after anarchy had thus been intentionally created among us; 
after governments had, by military force, been set up over us; after all 
our men who had been trained to public business were disfranchised, in 
order that we might be subjected to the control of the former slaves; 
and after adventurers had been encouraged to come in, and direct these 
emancipated slaves in their operations against us, and with their supe- 



(572) 

rior skill aid them in plundering us; when, I say, all these measures were 
resorted to, purposely, to destroy our manhood, and render us the most 
degraded specimens of humanity; if, in the face of all these difficulties, 
we have by our innate mental and moral force as a race, again been 
able to stand erect, and challenge a comparison, as true men and 
women, with the best varieties of the great Caucasian race, may we 
not well be of good cheer and look to the future with renewed confi- 
dence? 

We now stand ready to assist all the best elements in the North in 
restoring constitutional government, and honest and economical admin- 
istration of public affairs. And if, as I suggested to the Confederates 
at Davidson College, we will all, but for a few years, labor as earnestly 
as we did during the civil war, we can present to the view of the civil- 
ized world, a state of material prosperity, as well as of high moral tone, 
that any community may be proud to exhibit. 

Again, we should endeavor to repress all feelings of anger against 
the majority of the people of the North. From the beginning of the 
government slavery was the subject of contention. The discussion of 
a question of its nature, appealing to feeling as much as to reason, 
necessarily became exciting. Though in calmer times the wise govern 
countries, yet during periods of great excitement, the extreme men 
always lead the masses. As those rather remarkable for violence of 
feeling than statesmanship, controlled the immediate movements, which 
precipitated the struggle on our side, so in the North men of more vio- 
lence than principle directed the masses there. 

When the war suddenly ended, as they had suffered severely from 
our efforts, they evidently at first dreaded a renewal of the contest by 
adversaries who had shown themselves so formidable. It was, there- 
fore, not surprising that they wished to secure against all contingen- 
cies what they had, with so great an effort, won. The assassination of 
Lincoln, the vindictiveness of Johnson against us, in the first instance, 
and the later contest with him, whetted their anger and increased their 
violence. It is not strange, therefore, that extreme leaders, and selfish 
and greedy men, should have given shape and direction to their 
measures against us. 

As the only issue which directly, and necessarily divided the sec- 
tions, has been removed, we ought, on our side, to allow the recollec- 
tions of the struggle to pass away. The energy and force with which 
they fought us give evidence of their vigor and manhood as a people. 
It is just as unfair to judge the majority of the people of the North 



(573) 

b}^ the bad specimens we have seen among us, as it is for them to esti- 
mate us, as being like the noisy, malignant individuals here, who have 
only attempted to injure them by vituperative epithets. 

From my own personal knowledge of the citizens of the Northern 
States, I am able to say that I have met no better specimens of human- 
ity any where, than I have known in New England, the great Middle 
States, and in the Northwest. As they and we, had a common origin, 
are similar in race, language, and literature, and in the past, by joint 
efforts, achieved our independence, and established the most magnifi- 
cent Republic that has. existed upon the earth ; and as we must in 
future, have a common government, and similar institutions, it would 
seem to be a high duty of every wise and good man, both in the North 
and in the South, to cause all the painful memories of the past to be 
forgotten. In this mode we can defeat the efforts of selfish and 
unprincipled demagogues to keep the country excited, that they ma}'', 
by fanning the passions of sectional hate, acquire for themselves posi- 
tions, to which their merits do not entitle them. And we may thus 
at no distant day, restore the administration of public affairs, to what 
it previously was in the brightest da3's of our past history.. 



( 574 ) 

Scheme of National Currency. 

[So great is the present financial distress in the country, and such is the 
utter prostration of its general business that the following papers are pre- 
sented. Upon the coming in of General Taylor's administration, in 1849, 
attention was directed to the condition of the currency. The State bank 
system was in operation, and though under it a currency was furnished suffi- 
cient to supply all local demands, yet those who traveled sustained some 
losses. North Carolina notes were two per cent, below par in New York 
sometimes, and those from States in the southwest, suffered a still greater 
depreciation. 

The attention of the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to the subject 
of the best plan of improving the currency, and among other schemes it was 
proposed that the sub-Treasury should be converted into a bank of issue. 
Feeling, in comi|ion with most men of that day, averse to any institution 
that seemed to have a resemblance to a national bank, my attention had been 
directed to the subject. 

Having had a convei-sation with Mr. Simeon Draper on the subject, at his 
suggestion, I put my views in the form of a letter to him, which he caused to 
be published in the Courier and Enquirer, of New York, and which was 
copied into the National Intelligencer, from which it is now reproduced. 

It must be borne in mind that twenty-eight years ago, when this publica- 
tion was made, the experience of the people of the United States was far less 
than it is at present. Nevertheless, many of the prominent features of our 
present system are substantially presented in it. But there are two striking 
differences between tlie plan then considered and our present system. In the 
first place, that did not propose to interfere with the then existing system of 
State banks. The main object was to furnish a currency, which should main- 
tain a par value everywhere, as auxiliary to the existing system. In the 
second place the Treasury notes of the government were to be receivable for 
all dues to it, from whatever source they might come. That fact would have 
rendered them of equal or greater value than specie. 

The doubt expressed, as to whether or not we might always have outstand- 
ing bonds enough of the United States to sustain a circulation of twenty mil- 
lions of Treasury notes, is one that does not trouble us at present, Certain 
sentences that are italicised present suggestions of conditions that are now 
felt practically in most parts of the country:] 

AsTOR House, October 8, 1849. 

Dear Sir : — Your favor was received a day or two since, and it gives 
pleasure to comply witli your request that I would present in writing 
the outlines of the plan referred to in our conversation of last week. 

While it is conceded by every body that the existing financial systena 
must be changed in some respects, there seems to be a very general im- 
pression that the alterations necessary to meet the wants of the Govern- 
ment and of tlie community should not be accompanied by any great, 
radical, and sudden change of system. The plan referred to by me may 
perhaps be sufficiently understood, if stated concisely, iu the following 
mode : 

The Government should issue a certain amount of Treasury notes, (say 
ten or twenty millions, to be determined by law,) upon the following 
couditions : 



(575) 

State banks or individual bankers to deposit \vith the Ti-easnrer of the 
United States the existini^ stock of the United States, bearint; interest. cVrc.; 
the Treasurer in that event passing over tothe banker making the dcj^osit 
an equal or nearly equal amount of these notes. If thought advisable, 
it might be provided that the stock so dei)osited should be received from 
residents of the different States in proportion to their federal population. 
Should more than this amount be offered from a State, then the s.une to 
be scaled proportionally, as in case of subscription to joint-stock com- 
panies. Should there be a deficiency from any State, then that amount 
to be accepted from other quarters. Upon this Ix'iiig done, and the 
Ti-easury notes being turned over to the individual bankers, each person 
or corporation to make the necessarj endorsement on the notes so received, 
to identify them sufiiciently, and then be allowed to put them in circu- 
lation, as bank notes usually are ; such person, however, to be required 
to redeem these notes with specie on their presentation. Should he fail 
to do so in any instance, then, after protest, the note or notes to be sent 
to the Treasurer of the United States, and he authorized, after waiting 
a certain numlier of days for redemption by the person or corporation 
liable, to sell the stock so deposited, and redeem all the notes so issued 
by that person, on ])resentation. It should then be ])rbvided that the 
Treasury notes so issued should be receivable througiiont the United 
States in payment of the public dues. 

To illustrate the matter more fully, let us take an individual case. 
After the passage of the law, one of your State banks, or a private indi- 
^'idual, is supposed to deposit one hundred thousand dollars' worth of 
United States stock with the Treasurer. As the Government stock is 
worth much more than par just now, it might perhaps be perfectly safe for 
the Treasurer to turn over to such person one hundred thousand dollars 
in Treasury notes. If, however, it should be apprehended that the stock 
in any contingency might fall in value so much as to be below par, then 
it might be ]n'udent to hand over rather less tlian tlie sum in notes. 
The individual, after ])aying the Government the expense of engraving 
and preparing the notes, and after making the y^roper memorandum or 
entry on each bill, so as to make it appear that it had been issued and 
must be redeemed by him individually, to be allowed to put the same in 
circulation as bank paper usually is. These notes I would have receiv- 
able in payment of all public dues throughout the United States. Should 
one of them, on presentation to the individual banker, not be redeemed 
in specie, then, after protest, it might be transmitted to the Treasurer, 
and he, after giving notice to the banker the number of days required, 
to be authorized to sell the original stock deposited by that person and 
redeem all the notes bearing his signature. Until, howevei', he should 
be thus in default, he should be allowed to receive the interest un liis 
stock thus deposited, at such times as he is already entitled to have it. 

The Treasury notes thus issued would readily circulate, and in fact 
must have the highest credit ; because, in the first place, the person or 
corporation issuing them would be bound to redeem them in gold or 
silver, on presentation ; because, secondly, United States stock of greater 
value was pledged for their redemption ; and because, thirdly, they 
would be received at p>ar b}'' the Government throughout the United 
States. In fact, I take it that they must have the advantage of any 



(576) 

paper heretofore issued. The United States Bank notes had a high degree 
of credit, because the corporation was bound to redeem them in specie, 
and because they were receivable by the Government ; but they lacked 
the additional advantage of having United States stock of greater value 
than the whole circulation pledged for their redemption. The Treasury 
notes issued heretofore by the Government have sometimes been below 
par, because they were not redeemable in specie on presentation. It is 
obvious, therefore, tiiat these notes would have higher claims to the 
confidence of the community than either United States bank bills or 
Treasury notes have heretofore had. It seems to me, therefore, that the 
holders of these notes would have every reason to be satisfied with them, 
and that they would constitute a sound circulating medium. 

_ What would be the condition of the banker who issued them ? After 
his deposite of the stock with the Treasurer, he would still continue to 
receive the interest payal>le on the same, at stated periods, as he did pre- 
viously. It would merely, for the time as it were, be placed for safe 
keeping with the Treasurer of the United States, and he might never- 
theless make it the basis of his banking operations. In the case sup- 
posed, if, instead of one hundred thousand dollars in stock, he were re- 
quired to hold that amount of specie, it is obvious that he would lose 
the interest on that sum during the time it was so kept, but in the case 
of the stock he would be in receipt of the interest as formerly It is true 
that he would be compelled to keep on hand a sufficient sum in specie 
to redeem such notes as might be presented ; but when it is reme.nbered 
that those notes so secured, and receivable everywhere by the Govern- 
ment of the Union, would have the highest credit, and be sought every- 
where, it seems almost certain that comparatively a small amount of 
specie on hand would be an ample safeguard against the contingency of 
any run on the banker. In fact, I have no doubt that such persons, after 
retaining a sufficient amount of gold and silver on hand, and after pay- 
ing all the expenses incident to the business, would make handsome 
profits. If it should be thought that these profits might be unreason- 
ably large, it should be remembered that no one would beinjured thereby. 
The Government is already paying interest on its stock, and those per- 
sons \yho might borrow the Treas'ury notes of the banker would only 
pay him the same interest as they pay now for bank bills of less value. 
The benefits arising, therefore, would be the legitimate results of the 
system itself, which would not inflict a corresponding loss on any one. 

^ If the stock so deposited should be sold by the owner, it would never- 
ertheless in the hands of the purchaser remain subject to the lien. Should 
portions of it become redeemable, during the continuance of the system, 
then let other outstanding stock of the Government be substituted, so • 
as to keep the circulation up to the limit presci-ibed by the law, as near 
as pnicticable. 

The expense of putting the system in operation would be inconsiderable. 
When at Albany recently I made some inquiries with reference to your 
existing banking system in this State, which is substantially the same as 
that we are considering, the issues of the banks being founded on the 
stocks of the State and of the United States. Instead of a unifonn plate 
for all issues, however, I learned that eacdi baTik selected its own form ot 
note, and that they were merely signed by the registers of tlie State 



( 577 ) 

before delivery to tlie hiuik for circulation. The only reason aasig;ned 
to me for preferring this to the other mode was, that if the plate were 
once successfully counterfeited the mischief would be greater, because a 
greater number of notes of that form would be in circulation, and it 
would therefore bo more difficult to get in the entire issue, if it should 
be found necessary to do so. When, iiowever, there is a variety in the 
f(U-ms of the notes outstanding, the chance of a successful imitation of 
some of them is increased, while it is more difficult for the public to learn 
the characteristic marks of a number of diflterent plates than it would 
be to know a single one; and hence individuals would more frequently 
be deceived by imitations when there was a variety of notes in circula- 
tion. In tact, T am not aware that much inconvenience or loss has 
occurred heretofore in consequence of the Treasury notes of the Govern- 
ment having been counterfeited. Whether, however, it would be best 
to have one or many forms for the notes, it is not material now to inquire. 
My object in making reference to your State system, which has succeeded 
so well, was simply this : The amount in circulation is about ten mil- 
lions, yet I was told by Mr. St. John that, after charging the cost of 
engraving the notes to the individual bankers, the expense to the State 
of liaving them signed by the registers, &c., was not above six thousand 
dollars. "A large numl)er of the notes thus issued are one and two dollar 
bills, and it is his opinion that, if none of the notes were below live dol- 
lars, twenty millions worth might be issued at the same cost. It is obvious, 
therefore, that this item of expense, whether borne by the Cxovernment 
or the individuals, is too triHinsr to be considered. 

What would be the effects of this system if i)ut in optu-ation ? It is 
the opinion of everybody that the present Sub-Treasury needs modifica- 
tion. The public complains, especially, that large amounts of specie 
are stowed away in the vaults of the Govern ment, to the detriment of 
the community, which is thus deprived of its use ; and, secondly, that 
the Government, in addition to the trouble of counting and keeping the 
gold and silver, is subject to great, inconvenience and expense while 
.transporting such funds from point to poiut in the United States. These 
two causes of complaint would, in a great degree, be removed by the 
adoption of this plan. The notes thus issued would be capable of taking^ 
the place, in the coffers of the Government, of an equal amount of 
specie, and could be conveyed with facility by the public agents to the 
point where they were wanted. That the Government needs some other 
jnodifications of the Sub-treasury law is not doubted, but their adoption 
would not interfere with this system in any way. 

As compared with a United States Bank, it has ali-eady been said that 
these notes would have higher claims to credit tium the bills of that 
institution had. There would be this further advantage, too, in favor of 
the new plan : As the credit of the United States Bank depended 
mainly on the amount of specie in its vaults in ])roportion to its circula- 
tion, whenever there was a pressure in money matters the bank was 
obliged to call in its notes in self-defence. Ir thus happened that, at 
the time when the distress of the community most required its assis- 
tance, it was obliged, in some degree, to withdraw its accommodations, 
and thereby aggravate the financial sufferings. But the Treasury notes 
thus issued'^ relying for their support, not on the specie alone, but also, 
73 



(578) 

and in fact mainly, on tlie Government stock, would not have their 
credit affected to the same, perhaps not to any extent. Even if the 
amount should be twenty millions, which, according to my present 
recollection, is considerably more than the circulation of the late United 
States Bank was at any time, still there might be such an amount of 
United States stock pledged as to guaranty the redemption of the notes, 
under any probable or possible depression in its value. This could 
obviously be done, in establishing the system at the outset, without 
reducing the profits of the bankers below a fair rate. These notes 
would, I have no doubt, be kept outstanding, and in active circulation, 
at times of the greatest pressure. Should such be the case, it is evident 
that the existence of twenty millions of this sort of currency, steadily 
and at all times of pressure, would naturally benefit the country by 
diminishing the relative change in the whole amount of money caused 
by the fluctuations in the quantity of specie and bank notes which occur 
from time to time. 

Besides, it used to be charged upon the late United States Bank that 
when it wished to ])roduce a pressure and panic it would curtail its dis- 
counts at one point and enlarge tliem in other quarters, and thus keep 
up its business to the same extent. Whether it so acted it is not now 
material to enquire ; but the fact that it had the power subjected it to 
suspicion and odium. But, under the system we are considering, there 
would be no connexion whatever between the bankers at the difi'erent 
points, no more in fact tlian there is now between the State banks and 
merchants in different quarters of the Union. Each would, on the con- 
trary, do his business singly, and without concert with any other person 
or corporation. 

This system would also not be in any respect liable to the objections 
made against a Government bank. The Government would have no 
power to make loans or accommodations of any sort to individuals or 
corporations. Its office would be simply ministerial, and confined to 
preparing and delivering the notes to the individual bankers, and in the 
event of any one of them failing to redeem his notes it would simply, 
sell his stock and redeem them. 

It is obvious that the Government would not by this system have any 
new or dangerous powers conferred on it. 

One immediate effect of the measure would doubtless be seen in an 
increase in the value of the United States stocks. 

This ought rather to be desired, since it is advantageous to every Gov-, 
ernment to keep its credit in tlie highest state, it being thereby able to 
borrow, when necessary, on better terms. 

It is somMimes apprehended that if the currency should he expanded^ 
in a short time thereafter, in consequence of the increase of credit and 
husiness generally, a revulsion must occur. Undoubtedly such woidd he 
the result if a stimulus should he applied for a time and then suddeidy 
withdrawn. Such has heen the case several times in our history. But 
nohody has any apprehension that if\ on account of tlie opening of the 
California mines, or any other occurrence, there should he a great addi- 
tion to the money of the world, and. in consequence thereof an extension 
of credit and tra-§ic generally — nohody fears, I say, that this state of 
things would he followed hy any disastrous revulsions in husiness, be- 



(579) 

cause the gold and silver thus obtained, instead of being suddenly with- 
drawn, would remain as a permanent addition to the eurrency. So if, 
by the ineans of the system we are considering, an addition to our cur- 
rency shoidd be made, founded upon specie and Government stocks, and 
thereby a fresh impidse be given to business, there would seem to be no 
reason to apprehend a 'revidsion while the systsm continued. It would 
he mischievous imdouhtedly to terminate it suddenly. This, however, 
might be easily avoided by the Government. Even, if all the stock teas 
about to be taken up and the public debt paid off entirely, the treasurer 
might be authorized to re-issue portions of it, making it redeemahle in 
portions at regular periods for a few years, so as to terminate the system 
ivithaut any shock to the community. 

It is generally conceded that the present financial scheme does not 
meet tlie wants of the Government or of the community, yet it is not 
proposed to return either to a United States Bank or to any otherof the 
old systems. A measure partaking of some of the (qualities of these 
systems is most likely to be adopted. The collision of parties and the 
force of circumstances will probably generate a better plan than the 
former ones, just as the constitution of the United States is regarded as a 
more perfect instrument than any of the single minds engaged in pro- 
ducing it was able to make. All the elements of the proposed plan are 
cdready in existenee. 

The Government has a large amount of stock outstanding, and will, 
in the nature of things, doubtless continue to have, for a long series of 
years. Treasury notes have also been issued by successive Administra- 
tions, and have been countenanced by both political parties. The most 
striUng difference between the notes thus recommended to he issued and 
the former ones, consists in this, that it is now proposed to provide a 
fund to ensure their redemption in specie at the will of the holder— 
an advantage of which the former notes were greatly in want ; this 
furnishing indeed the strongest objection made to their issue. It is 
only necessary to connect the issue of Treasury notes with the already 
existing stock, in the manner suggested, and the system is complete. 

I have thus, in compliance with what I understood to be your desire, 
in this hurried manner, presented the outlines of the plan. Not sup- 
posing it necessary to consider the details minutely, I have endeavored 
to present, in the most concise manner, a general idea of the system. I 
ara disposed to think well of it, because every person to whom I_ have 
presented it, for months past, has entertained a favorable view of it. 
I have the honor to be, very sincerely, yours, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 

S. Draper, Esq, 

NOTfi. 

Intelligent bankers in this city assure me that if the ten percent, tax, which 
prevents the existence of State banks were removed, they would be able to 
lend money with greater advantage to their institutions at five per cent., than 
they can now realize, and this without issuing more than two to one, instead 
of three to one, which was formerly found safe in our State, Undoubtedly, 
the frightful suffering from the contraction now being produced by the action 



(580) 

of the government might be alleviated in this manner. Or if the government 
were to increase its volume of Treasury notes, and make them receivable for 
all dues, it might even thus arrest the present pressure and give relief to the 
country. 



[Being in the city of New York in the autumn of 1873, and but a few weeks 
after the commencement of the " panic," I, in consequence of a conversation 
with a gentleman connected with one of the great dailies of that city, pre- 
pared a paper on the subject of the currency, which I was anxious to get 
before the public, prior to the State election to occur in a few days. On con- 
sultation, the managers of the paper declined to insert it, and it is offered 
now, not as a publication of that period, but because it contains some state- 
ments that may be worthy of present consideration, by reason of their connec- 
tion with the subject of currency. 

Though it was then said that we had "touched bottom," and though this 
statement has been repeated from time to time in almost every month for the 
last three years, it is manifest that the country has been continually falling, 
deeper and deeper, into distress and bankruptcy. Nor is there any well 
founded reason to doubt but that we shall continue to fall with an acceler- 
ated velocity, unless the government will change its action.] 

New York, November 1, 1873. 

I read some days since, with much disappointment. Senator Bout- 
well's lecture on the "Finances of the Country." Its statement of the 
causes of the present unfortunate condition of monetary affairs is 
meagre and unsatisfactory in the extreme, and tlie remedies suggested 
anything but encouraging. Alarmed as the public mind is by wide- 
spread financial distress, it is in a proper condition to consider the 
whole subject, and look for substantial remedies. A plain statement 
of facts and a clear presentation of the obvious principles suggested by 
them, may tend to enlight the public judgment. 

In the first place, to what causes are we to attribute the present dis- 
astrous condition of the country? By apprehending these clearly we 
may be able to find the appropriate remedy, as the physician ascertains 
the cause of the suffering of his patient before he attempts to prescribe. 
Unquestionably the chief cause of the present suffering is the destruc- 
tion of capital in the late civil war. Yet this great fact is seldom ad- 
verted to, or sufficiently appreciated. Let us for a moment consider 
its magnitude. If to the recognized debt of the United States at the 
close of the war, there be added the sums already paid by the govern- 
ment, and by States, and municipalities, and individuals, the whole 
amount can hardly be estimated at less than tlian four thousand mil- 
lions, ($4,000,000,000). Though the South may not have had half as 
many men in the field as the United States had, yet the cost of main- 
taining them in their isolated and straightened condition was so much 
greater per man, that their debt and expenditures cannot fairly be 
estimated at less than two thousand millions, ($2,000,000,000). 

In the contest, there were at least one milion of men killed, or so dis- 
abled as to render them non producers. We may approximate the 



(581) 

industrial loss thus sustained. In the year 18G0, a slave physically 
fitted to be a soldier, that is, one of the constitution and age from 
which soldiers were selected, could have been readily sold in the 
Southern States for fifteen hundred dollars. The price of labor, too, 
W'as then lower in the South than it was in the North. There can be 
no doubt but that the white men of the country, many of them, too, 
being highly skilled laborers, and possessed of superior intelligence, 
were worth quite as much pecuniarily to the country. Certainly their 
labor would average in value more than ninety dollars per annum, 
this being the interest at six per cent, of fifteen hundred dollars. In 
other words this million men had a value of not less than fifteen hun- 
dred millions of dollars, ($1,500,000,000). 

In the next place, it must be remembered that, in the two armies 
combined, for the period of four years, the aggregate of the men 
employed in the war, and thus rendered unproductive to the coun- 
try, would not, on an average, fall below one million. At home their 
labor would probably have been worth at least one dollar |)er day, 
while in the army they received perhaps fort}' cents. The difference 
between these sums, sixty cents per day for each, will, in four years, 
for the whole million amount to more than seven hundred million 
dollars. 

Again, the destruction of property in the Southern States, when we 
consider the desolation of farms, the burning of houses, factories, and 
loss of live stock, farming utensils, and all other kinds of personal 
property, and the labor of four years, for which Confederate bonds and 
notes were no compensation, the loss in tlie South was much more 
than one thousand millions, ($1,000,000,000). It is difficult to make 
even an approximate estimate of what the North lost on the sea. 
Some ships were captured, many kept unemployed, or transferred with 
loss to foreigners. When the war began we had one-third of the ship- 
ping of the world, and seemed about to surpass Great Britain in ton- 
nage. If we attribute one-half of our great loss to the war, and the 
other to the protective tariff, the injur}'- is immense. Mr. Boutwell 
estimates the earnings from transportation on the seas at one hundred 
million dollars, of which, he says, three-fourths go to foreigners at this 
time. The whole loss to tlie country in maritime operations since 
1800, must amount to several hundred millions. 

Leaving, then, out of view all such considerations as to whether we 
have not also lost by the crippling of other kinds of industry, and the 
question whether the liberated slaves produce as much as they did in 
their former condition, there can be no doubt but that the entire pecu- 
niary loss to the country caused by the war, was little less than ten 
thousand million dollars, ($10,000,000,000). 

Some persons imagine that the ex{)enditures made were, in fact, a 
mere change of property. It is undoubtedly true that individuals, in 
many instances, made large profits, but in the aggregate of this vast 
expenditure, such items are comparatively small. The bulk of this 
expenditure is an absolute loss to the country. If I give a man ten 
dollars to make me a pair of boots, I have an equivalent for my money 
and he has realized ten dollars by his labor, so that the country has 



(582) 

thus gained. But if I pay him the ten dollars to fire a cannon as a 
salute on my birth-day, then, as I have no substantial equivalent, 
though the man has been compensated for his labor, the community 
has only ten dollars, instead of twenty as in the former case. The 
money spent in war was a loss of wealth to the country less obvious, 
because by the creation of a large debt the payment of which was post- 
poned. The weight of that debt, in part, now oppresses the community. 

In view of this condition of things, what ought to have been the 
policy of the government? Clearly, by all the means in its power to 
alleviate the condition of the country. When a surgeon examines a 
man badly wounded, he recommends quiet and stimulants. What 
would have been thought of one who should impose on the wounded 
man the same amount of labor that is usually required of a robust 
one? Yet that is just what the government did with the country. 
During the war, to enable it to bear its burden, the government neces- 
sarily, as well as wisely,, expanded the currency. At its close, sound 
policy required that the currency should have retained its expansion, 
until the country, through the industry of the people, recovered 
strength, and the citizens had discharged most of their debts incurred 
during the period of inflation. If a debt, was contracted when gold was 
at a premium of fifty, be paid when gold is at ten, it is clear that the 
debtor pays thirty or forty per cent, more than he agreed to pay. 

The government, however, in violation of all sound principles, 
began at the close of the war, a system of sudden and violent con- 
traction. Its whole efibrt seems, from that period to the present, to 
have been to reduce the currency as rapidly as possible. Instead of 
being content merely with paying the interest on its debt, and leaving 
the principal to be met when the country had recovered its full 
strength, it has made the greatest efforts to pay large amounts of the 
principal. To discharge a six per cent, debt, it has been taking from 
the people money worth to them ten or twelve, as the rates of interest 
in most parts of the country prove. By its contraction of the volume 
of the currency, it has been crushing the debtors by compelling them 
to pay much more than they in fact equitably owe. Its action is in 
effect, what would be that if an act of Congress, obliging all debtors 
to pay from twenty to an hundred per cent, more than they owe, accord- 
ing to the ages of their several debts. A large portion of the indebt- 
edness of the country, though its form may have recently changed, 
was contracted when gold was worth fifty and even one hundred per 
cent, more than it now is. The action of the government is thus 
crushing the debtors who, of course, are the weakest portion of the 
community and most in need of aid. 

After the close of the great European wars, in 1815, many years 
elapsed before Great Britain could resume, and the process was at- 
tended with great depression. So it was with us after the war of 1812. 
Those among us who as bondholders and moneyholders, are profited 
by the contraction, refer to such facts as these to prove that a depre- 
ciated paper currency injures greatly a country. They attempt to 
substitute effect for cause. They might as well pretend that lying in 
bed in the day time made men sick, because it was seen that men in 



( 583 ) 

bed in the day time were often sick, while those that were well stood 
on their feet. From necessity during the war, the United States sus- 
pended specie payment. The reasons for that suspension exist still, 
though in a less degree, and cannot be ignored without inflicting great 
suffering on the community. It is desirable that all sick persons 
should get up and go about tlieir business, but the attempt to make 
them walk before they have recovered their strength would be mis- 
chievous. Those clamorous for resumption of specie payments allege, 
that the present suspension injures the working classes. They can 
prove nothing of the kind, and by such assertions are merely striving 
to mislead the public. While the amount of currency in circulation 
influences prices among us at home, gold is always the standard of 
exchange between this country and foreign nations. Such will ever 
be the fact whether the volume of our currency here is large or small. 
Our foreign trade was as well managed and as prosperous five years 
ago, when gold was above forty premium, as it is now, with gold 
at less than ten per cent, premium. In spite of all the attempts of 
the mone^'holders to mystify the subject, it is clear that the volume of 
our paper currency at home, in nowise influences the prices of what 
we sell to countries, or buy from them. 

A second potent cause of the present suffering arises from the fact 
that a very large portion of all the money of the country is held 
chiefly in this city, for purposes of speculation in stocks, &c., or 
what is commonly called gambling in gold, stocks, etc. This sum, 
variously estimated at from one hundred to two hundred millions, or 
perhaps nearly one-fourth of all the money of the country, is, for the 
time it is so held, as completely lost for all legitimate business pur- 
poses as if it had been destroyed in some of the great fires that have 
occurred. Suppose ten men, by putting in ten thousand dollars each, 
should make a pool of one hundred thousand dollars, and meet daily 
to gamble for it, is it not clear that this money would be as useless as 
if it did not exist. We have precisely such a condition, on a gigantic 
scale, in Wall Street now. The western farmer cries out, " for heaven's 
sake, send us money to enable us to move our grain before the canals 
are closed by ice, and thus relieve our distress." Wall Street replies, 
" we do not doubt your distress, and are sorry for it, but we need all 
the money for gambling purposes, or to meet liabilities incurred by 
gambling operations." The cotton planter, from the same cause, sees 
the value of his product diminished four or five cents in the pound, 
and all his profits lost. The manufacturer, for alike reason, must sus- 
pend operations and discharge his workmen, and the poor thus 
everywhere are compelled to suff'er the greatest hardships. But for 
these gambling operations, as the crops of the country for the past 
year have been good, and the indebtedness of individuals has been 
diminishing from year to year, there ought to be a condition of com- 
parative prosperity. These panics fall on the country at that period 
of the year when they do most mischief to the working classes. It 
was so in 1857, when the country was otherwise in the best condition. 
So, also, was it in 1869, when the Black Friday of September began 
the catastrophe. Whether these panics are cunningly provided or 



(584) 

arranged to take place at that time, so as to deprive the farmers and 
planters of their profits, and enable the middle men to clutch the 
fruits of their hard earnings, or whether they occur as the result 
merely of this accumulation of capital for gambling, they are equally 
destructive to the best interests of the country. 

All civilized nations concur in the opinion that gambling is neither 
productive of wealth to the country, nor beneficial to individuals. I 
saw a Russian, at Wiesbaden, in a few hours winning at roulette sixty 
thousand dollars, but on the next day he lost it again, and all else he pos- 
sessed, and became a bankrupt. In 1866, I met an acquaintance from 
the Southwest in this city, who told me that he had brought three hun- 
dred thousand dollars here, and in a few weeks had lost it all in these 
stock speculations. If it were publicly known that in a certain house 
in this city, a dozen or two young men were, by gambling rendered 
bankrupts, the police would in twenty-four hours come down on that 
house. If the city authorities refused to allow it to be interfered with, 
and that fact became known, such would be the indignation of the 
community that at the first municipal election, a new set of men 
would be placed in office. But while faro banks ruin a few hundred 
persons, Wall street gambling slays its tens of thousands. 

These public operations not only tempt the incautious to embark in 
them, but they also seem to oblige others to engage in them at times 
to protect their own property from depreciation. A man who is a 
large owner of stocks, and whose ability to sustain his business opera- 
tions, depends mainly on his being able to meet his engagements b}"- 
sale of his stocks, may be compelled to enter the contest against these 
combinations that, for speculative purposes, seek to impair the value of 
his property. It is clear that if the immense sums thus employed 
were sent into the countr}^ to aid farmers and planters to forward their 
crops, to keep manufacturing establishments in operation, and to fur- 
nish the country merchants with the means of meeting their obliga- 
tions to the wholesale dealers, there would be an advance in the for- 
eign as well as the domestic trade, and an immense increase in the 
general prosperity of the country, no portion of which would derive so 
great an advantage as this city. 

It is said, however, that it is impossible to put an end to this 
immense gambling operation. There is not the slightest ground for 
such an excuse. Any tolerable lawyer can draft in an hour, an act 
which if passed into a law, would break up this whole system. It may 
be said that in spite of existing legislation against private gambling, 
it is still secretly practiced to a small extent. A faro bank, it is true, 
may sometimes be concealed in an obscure room, but such an opera- 
tion as that of Wall street could not exist without publicity. But it 
is said that we must acknowledge the right of people to bu}'' and sell 
gold and stocks. This is undoubtedly true, but it is easy to so frame 
the law, as not to interfere with bona fide sales. We trust judges and 
juries to determine whether the appropriation of property is a felony, 
a simple trespass, a breach of trust, or a lawful taking. In like man- 
ner they are presumed to be capable of deciding whether a combina- 
tion is a conspiracy or a lawful association. There have, in fact, been 



( 585 ) 

many cases decided in which, combinations, by false statements and 
rumors to affect values, have been held to be within the reach of the 
criminal law. By breaking up this whole gambling system, legiti- 
mate trade would be rendered more prosperous, and the commercial 
morals of the country im})roved. 

Tiiere is a third cause for the present suffering of the countr}^ to be 
found in the manner in which the existing banking system is con- 
ducted. When, for example, a planter in North Carolina had some 
money to spare, he deposited it in one of the national banks and re- 
ceived eight per cent, thereon. This money was lent out again by the 
bank at the rate of eighteen or more per cent, per annum. If banks 
were prevented from receiving interest on deposits, the effect would be 
that any person having mone}' to lend, instead of putting it thus in 
bank, would, to secure interest on it, lend it to his neighbor on mort- 
gage, or otherwise, and while he obtained thus for himself a fair rate, 
the borrower would save the extra ten per cent, he novv gives to the 
banks. By such means as this, and the other advantages they possess, 
the banks are making enormous profits, and contributing largely to 
the impoverishment of the people. 

The present high rate of interest is undoubtedly due in a great part 
to the want of a larger volume of currency. There is a second cause 
which seems to be strangely overlooked. It is owing mainly to the 
great destructioii or loss of property caused by the war. In 1860 there 
were as many lenders as borrowers, and hence money could be had at 
fair rates; that is to say, at a little more than tlie average earning of 
the country. But in the South there are at this time far fewer lenders 
than there were before the war. On the other hand, there are now ten 
borrowers for one formerly. Men there are willing [o pay enormous 
rates to save their property from sale on account of old debts, or to 
endeavor to recuperate their fortunes. Things are better in the North, 
but I have little doubt but that even there, there has been a diminu- 
tion in the number who have capital to spare. There is no other 
remedy for this but that which arises from the increase of wealth. 
In rich communities, like Holland and England, because they possess 
a superabundance of capital, money is cheap. 

While our present distressed condition is in a great degree due to 
the loss of capital in the war, it has been immensely aggravated by 
the action of the government in withholding a proper supply of cur- 
rency, and by its aiding monopolies for the benefit of the wealthy, and 
consequently oppressing the working classes. What can be more 
monstrously unjust than the present system of tariff" taxes? It has 
been made purposely for the benefit of the manufacturers. It is as 
cruelly unjust as the ingenuity of sharp and selfish men could frame 
it, for their own advantage. Whatever human wit could devise to 
relieve them from all share in supporting the government, and to 
enable them to extort the largest sums from the poorer classes, has 
been done. 

If all duties were reduced to thirty per cent, and made uniform on 
all importations, the government would realize a larger revenue than 
it does from the enormous rates, while the people would make many 
74 



(586) 

of their purchases for fifty per cent, less than present prices. If manu- 
facturers cannot get along with a bounty of thirty per cent., ought 
they to continue business? 

In 1816, Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun, while advocating the tariff", 
placed their support of it on the ground that it was fair to aid our 
manufacturing establishments during their infancy. But these infants 
are now more than fifty years old, and yet they are just as clamorous 
for government pap as they ever were. The}' endeavor to delude the 
people by constantly crying out that American labor ought to be sup- 
ported, just as if the farmers and mechanics of the country were not 
as much laborers as anybody else. They insist that these very persons 
ought to be taxed to increase their own profits. Those branches of 
our manufactures, which can be profitably carried on in this country 
are highly prosperous, and will continue so under a fair tariff. What 
right have other enterprises, which cannot support themselves even 
with thirty per cent, bounties, to insist on higher rates? Oranges 
might be produced under glass in Massachusetts, but it is clear that if 
the labor and capital necessary to effect this, were em[)loyed in gath- 
ering the ice, which nature makes, and sending it to Florida, more 
oranges would thus be procured than could be produced in hot houses. 
Mr, Boutwell, and others, complain of the large balance of trade 
against us, as a reason why the tariff duties should be kept so exorbi- 
tantly high. But with these present enormous rates, the balance of 
trade with foreigners, is much more against us now, than it was under 
the twenty per (;ent. tariff of 1860. In other words, taxing the whole 
community heavily, to keep up manufacturing operations, that cannot 
support themselves, will not enable us to pay our debts abroad. 
Those branches of our manufactures, such as iron, cotton fabrics, and 
many others that are well suited to our condition, will not only |)ros- 
per of themselves, but are now, in fact, injured by a S3'stem, which by 
taxing heavily all things, increases the cost of living to the laboring 
classses. 

If A is engaged in a business by reason of which he is obliged to 
lose money, it does not help the matter as far as the country is con- 
cerned, to authorize him to take money from his neighbor B, to make 
up his loss. With reference to the wants of the wealthy classes, in all 
countries their extravagance increases with their affluence. Old Romans 
used, to show the immensity of their wealth, to give dinners of ostritch 
brains and flamingo tongues, and Cleopatra's vanity was gratified by 
dissolving pearls in vinegar. Since the close of the war, the finances 
of the country have been managed in the interests of the money clas- 
ses, over-looking the poor whose condition has been made worse. 

We need, in the first place, more currency. Whether Congress 
ought to authorize the Treasury to sell legal tenders for bonds, when 
they are wanted, and again give out its bonds when there is a surplus 
of money abroad, or whether a better plan can be devised, I will not 
now attempt to discuss. Where there is a will there will be found a 
way to accomplish the object. 

Again, the present banking system ought to give way to a more 
liberal one. If the government furnishes the circulation, wdiy should 



(587) 

not all banking be managed by individuals, as other business is done? 
The public mind is confused on this subject because banks which 
issue their notes ought to hold means to redeem them. The present 
banks rest on the credit of the government bonds and legal tenders. 
Is not the foundation as strong as the superstructure? Why, then, in 
lieu of the present system, not allow all banking to be managed by 
individuals" on the metallic and paper currency provided by the gov- 
ernment? To supply the people with dry goods, private parties estab- 
lish houses for their distribution. In like manner, leave it to indi- 
viduals to collect money at certain points to be lent to borrowers. 
Many of the largest and best managed establishments in the world are 
private banks. It is said, however, that the government ought to 
compel banks to keep securities for the benefit of depositors. But 
when farmers deposit cotton or grain with their agents or factors for 
sale, the government takes no steps to protect them from loss. _ And 
yet, from the nature of these articles, there is a greater necessity for 
their being deposited with others than in the case of money. Individ- 
uals may keep their own money more conveniently at home than 
their produce, which must be sent abroad through agents. Even as 
banks are now managed, more men lose money by them, than is lost 
through factors and other agents selected by the farmers. If the money 
be, therefore, suppliegl, like other commodities, by individual dealers, 
and if the government will afford an adequate amount_ for circulation 
there will be fewer panics and more uniform prosperity. Of course, 
capitalists will not be able to maintain such enormous rates of interest 
as they do under the present system. 

It was said in my hearing the other day that the national banks had 
such power that it was useless to struggle against them. The associa- 
ciations of the mechanics, and the great grange movements m the 
West, look as though the people are not yet ready to succumb to 
monopolies, however gigantic they may be. The present panic vail 
greatly strengthen the popular cause. Where one wealthy firm sus- 
pends, a thousand laborers are thrown out of employment. The dis- 
tress of the country makes men think and act. In spite of the advan- 
tages which the monopolies possess, a combined effort on the part of 
the people will insure reform. 

Very respectfully, vours, &c., 

^ * ^ T. L. CLINGMAN. 



[In conuectiou with this subject, there is presented a pubUcation which 
appeared in the New York Herald, of September 2Y, 1875:] 

Correspondent— I represent the New York Herald and would like to 
obtain your views on the currency question and the Ohio, Pennsylvania 
and New York democratic platforms, and your impressions as to the 
probable action of parties in the coming Presidential contest. 

General Clingman— My present engagements as a member of the 
Convention do I'lot allow' me time to give you an elaborate statement, 
but I have no objection to giving, concisely, my views on these points. 



(588) 

Tlie real questions involved are not fairly presented to the popnlar 
mind. The people are misled and their minds are confused by the 
tactics of the contractionists or hard money men, as they call themselves, 
vi^hose strategy prevents the people from seeing the real issue. They 
know that everybody prefers specie to inconvertible paper, and are con- 
tinually crying out against rag-money. Their tactics remind me of a 
doctor who, on being called to see a patient with a fractured leg, or one 
prostrate with disease, should, instead of administering restoratives, dis- 
course eloquently on the advantages of ont-door exercise, walking, run- 
ning, or riding a trotting horse. Every person is ready to admit the 
wisdom of such prescriptions for people in health. The condition of 
the United States resembles that of a man gradually recovering from a 
serious injury, and who must sufter a relapse if prematurely put on hard 
labor. The great pecuniary loss which the country sustained by the 
late civil war is not generally taken into the account. If yoa consider 
that, including advances made by States, towns and individuals, and 
what the government paid out during the war, with its acknowledged 
debt it makes $4,000,000,000. The debt of the Confederate States was 
probably half as much, or $2,000,000,000. Then 1,000,000 men, per- 
haps, were either killed or so disabled as to become non-producers. If 
these men were estimated as being individually worth only as much as 
an able-bodied slave sold for in I860 — $1,500 — there must be added a 
further loss to the country of $1,500,000,000. Then there was euiployed 
on both sides for four 3'ears, nearly 1,000,000 men, wlio received for 
their labor not more than one-third of what they would have earned at 
home. Besides this there was an immense destruction of property in 
the South during the war, while the North sustained heavy losses on the 
sea in several modes. A fair summing up of all these items will show 
that the country, as a whole, must have sustained a loss of not less than 
$8,000,000,000.' and perhaps as much as $10,000,000,000. 

This immense loss was not so apparent, because of the very large issues 
of paper credit in different forms which took the place of the property 
destroyed, and thus created the impression that there had been little or 
no loss of wealth. The country overflowed with paper representatives 
of money, the whole amount of circulation being not less than two thou- 
sand millions. Of course, people made contracts on this basis, and, as 
the volume of currency was diminished, the debtor class found them- 
selves under a burden which was constantly growing hea-vier. Thus a 
man who, ten years ago, borrowed what was equivalent to $40 or $50 in 
gold, is now, in addition to the interest, compelled to pay double that 
amount. Of course, the debtors are the weaker class and have the 
stronger claims for aid ; but, in fact, the action of the government was 
against them and tended to increase their burdens. Had the volume of 
the currency been kept steadily at the same amount that it was at the 
close of the war, this condition would have been perfectly fair to both 
parties, and neither debtor nor creditor could have justly complained. 
But in truth the government rapidly contracted the currency, and thus 
virtually increased the del)ts of the people, making it harder for them to 
pay off their obligations. I was surprised to see how long the country 
held up under this rapid increase of the burdens of the people. Had the 
currency been reduced only one half, say to $1,000,000,000, I believe the 



(589) 

conntrj' would have been able to stand up under it. But when the vol- 
ume was reduced to only a third of wliat it had been, its back was 
broken, and the crash came. As an overstrain on a chain will cause its 
weakest link to give way, so such speculators as Jay Cooke tirst went 
under. Had the government then added $100,000,000 to the legal ten- 
ders the panic would probably have been arrested ; but the strain has 
been kept up, and link after link has given awa_y. The wound inflicted 
on tlie credit and business of the country is now so deep that it will not 
be easil}' healed. Even strong establishments have collected their 
resources and are standing still from apprehension. Money cannot be 
obtained now for useful business enterprises. Banks, seeing that debtor 
after debtor is falling under the pressure, are alarmed and stand still, 
not knowing at what moment the force of the stormi may strike them. 
Business is thus rendered stagnant, and laborers cannot he ])rotitably 
employed. Many are living on their past earnings, while others are 
sinking into poverty and want, and this condition must continue and 
become worse unless an efficient remedy be applied. Though the evil 
first fell on the interior, it has reached to centres of trade. People feel 
that they are too poor to buy much of the country merchant, and hence 
the country merchants do not purchase largely of the wholesale dealers, 
and the great centres of trade are suffering. Moneyed men, appreiiend- 
ing justly that the bottom has not yet been touched, are holding on to 
their funds. The man who sees that he can now buy a lot in New York 
for half what it would have cost him five years ago is waiting in hope 
that next year he may be able to buy it for only a fourth of its former 
value. Ca))italists stand still, hoping that better opportunities will pre- 
sent themselves for investment, and laborers are thus kept idle and in 
want. Apj)lications on the part of the people for relief are met with 
denunciation. A leading advocate of hard money says that the man 
who calls for more circulation is dishonest — that he wishes to pay a hun- 
dred dollar debt with only $80. But he insists that it is not only right 
to make a man who only owed $80 now pay $100, but that it is dishonest 
for the government not to compel him to pay the larger sum. The organs 
of the money interest say that debtors wish to pay their debts with rags. 
Thev forget that they, and the government acting in concert with them, 
scattered these rags over the country and induced tlie peojjle to contract 
debts on a rag basis, and are now unwilling to receive them back again. 
If a year ago I had borrowed 100 pounds of rags, with a promise to pay 
106 pounds, could my creditor rightfully insist that I should pay him 
gold instead ? Or would it be fair for him to combine with other capi- 
talists to destroy all the rags in the country so that he might compel me 
to pay him gold instead? This iigure presents the real merits of the 
case. The people were encoui-aged to make debts in rags, arul now 
they are to be required to pay tliem off in gold. The greediness of the 
money power has thus paralyzed the industry of the country. 

Correspondent— Have you any further expression to make on this 
point — the banks for instance ? 

General Clingman — there is another great question to be considered; 
one which vitally affects the existence of our whole system of free gov- 
ernment. General Jackson thought that the old United States Bank 
with its capital of $35,000,000, was a power dangerous to popular lib- 



( 590 ) 

erty ;_ but our present national banks have a capital of $350,000,000— 
ten times as much as the old institution had. Messrs. Clay, Webster 
and Calhoun dreaded a jrovernment bank, and said that it was most for- 
tunate for the country that there was antagonism between the then 
government and the United States Bank. Now we have the immense 
capital of the national banks, ten-fold more powerful than then existed, 
closely allied with a government expenditure and official patronage 
nearly twenty times greater than it then was. It has, too, at its back 
the power of $2,000,(;00,000 in the hands of bondholders and other 
creditors, who are making a common tight for it. This ])owerful combi- 
nation has up to the present time, carried all its points and wielded the 
power of the government at its will. In the first conversation I ever 
had with Mr. Calhoun, he spoke with great apprehension of the fate of 
our free system in the event of the government being able to acquire 
the control of the money power of the country. Have not his fears 
been realized ? Has not the government hitherto in its action been com- 
pletely subservient to the money power ? We have now before us not 
merely the question of pecuniary interest — that is overshadowed by the 
higher issue of liberty. The result of next year's contest will doubtless 
determine whether our present system of free government is to continue 
in substance as well as in name. 

Entertaining such convictions, I, of course, feel the deepest interest 
in the coming elections in Ohio and Pennsylvania. The platforms of the 
deniocratic party, if not all that they should be, are in the right line of 
action. Of the probabilities of their success we must judge from the 
past. Since the so-called panic has become serious, the elections have 
generally been favorable to those opposed to the party in power. This 
was mainly due to the financial condition of the country. When mat- 
ters are going on smoothly, the people are disposed to let the government 
remain in the hands of those in power ; but when they sustain injury 
they endeavor to ascertain the cause — just as a man does not think it 
necessary to consult a physician as long as he feels well, but when 
attacked by pain he looks for a remedy." The attention of the masses 
having been called to the action of the government, they condemned it. 
To this cause mainly are we to attribute the great political changes that 
have occurred in the State elections. It was'this that elected Gaston in 
Massachusetts. It is true there was said to be money enough in Massa- 
chusetts, but it was held by the few ; nineteen out of twenty were in 
want, and, finding no employment to enable them to earn a living, man- 
ifested their dissatisfaction. It gave little consolation to suffering men 
to be told that General Butler and a few others had a super-abundance 
of money. The fact that a man's crib and barn were full of grain and 
provender would not console his live stock unless some of the contents 
could be obtained for their use. It is not singular that the party in 
power should have lost ground from such causes. Their overthrow 
would have been much more signal if their opponents had had the 
sagacity, the disinterestedness and the manliness to place themselves 
fairly and squarely on the true issue. Two or three bold speeches in 
the Senate, setting forth the truth of the causes from which the country 
was suffering, would have greatly increased the majorities against the 
administration party. Deprived as they were of the counsel of most of 



(591) 

those who shouki have been their leaders, the people understood the 
issue sufficiently tu win the battle. Now, able ineii in Ohio, as well as 
elsewhere, are presenting the question to the masses, atid I tiiink tliey 
must win. They have truth and justice with them, and the interests of 
nirieteen-twentieths of the peo])le are on the same side. Against them 
is arrayed almost the entire n)oney power of the country, which can to 
a great extent control newspapers and furnish orators. 

It has struck me that the hard money organs are •jvershooting the 
mark in their mode of warfare. Feeling their cause to be on its merits 
weak, not content with cunning sophistries, they are profuse in the use 
of denunciatory epithets. They are constantly crying out rag money, 
affirming that all op|)osed to their views are dishonest; that a man who 
wishes debtors to pay only as much as they originally owed is no better 
than a knave, &c. On the other side it has gratified me to see with 
what patience the people of the country have borne the evils under 
which they are suffering. A similar condition of affairs would, in most 
parts of Europe, have produced a revolution, or at least uprisings and 
disturbances on a much larger scale than those in Pennsylvania. Our 
citizens, with the spirit of enlightened Americans are merely striving to 
find proper remedies through the ballot-box. 

The hard money organs denounce as repudiators all who are against 
their ruinous policy of contraction. If a repudiation party should rise, 
it will be due to the denunciatory course of these organs that, in their 
profusion of epithets, are likely to excite the anger of the suffering mas- 
ses. The people of this country are willing to ])ay every dollar of the 
national debt, but they tiiink it ought to be ]»aid in the manner least 
burdensome to them. It was a great mistake that the government did 
not content itself with ])aying merely the interest of the debt up to this 
time, leaving the principal to be discharged after the country had recov- 
ered from the losses of the war, and its wealth and population had Ijeen 
increased, so that the burden would have been rendered comparatively 
light. Paying the interest in gold would have brought the bonds up to 
par, and this ought to have satisfied men, who had originally bought 
them for half their face value. The bondholders and their allies, l)y 
insisting on more than this, and urging a policy as unjust as it is ruin- 
ous, may so irritate the masses as to lay aground for a repudiation party. 
Men may rise up over the land who, by showing that the l)ondholders 
have already received niore than the principal and interest of what they 
actually paid in gold, may so influence the minds of the people as to 
induce many to favor stopping further payments. Shouhl any such 
strong party arise, it will be solely due to the greediness and insolence of 
the money ])ower. Deprecating, as I do, any &«ch contest, I trust that 
capitalists will be content, like Shylock, with the pound of fiesji, and not 
also insist on having the life-l)lood of the country. It is idle tor tliem to 
continue to push aside the real issue by cunning sophistries. They point 
to the fact that in England and in this country, when suspension of 
specie payments existed, business was not prosperous toward the close 
of those periods. In times of great fi-ial, governments are compelled to 
resort to systen)s of credit. 

Had not the United States in the late civil war drawn hirgely on its 
credit with the people, the war could not have been maintained on its 



(592) 

gi_^antic scale for a single year. Any striving now to pay off these debts 
too rapidly inflicts on the inasses just snch evils as were experienced in 
England from a like course. In their arguments they mistake cause for 
eifect. Their error is like that of a man who should say that carrying 
crutches made men lame, because all the men he saw with crutches were 
lame. If our government had not resorted to a system of credit and 
expansion of cnrrenc}' it could not have moved at all. The suffering 
now experienced results from its attempting to throw away its crutches 
too soon. By allowing a longer time for recovery, the injury might be 
greatly lessened. 

Correspondent — What is yonr idea. General, of the national bank 
system ? 

General Clingman — The present national bank ntonopoly ouglit to be 
discontinued, and a system of State banks allowed to take its place. For 
ten or fifteen years prior to 1860, we had as good a system of currency 
as we could reasonably expect to see. I doubt if the community lost as 
much under that plan, as it does under the present one. Indeed, in addi- 
tion to liabilities of individual losses, the present national bank organi- 
zation, besides its inordinate gains, is enabled to make so extensive com- 
binations among its members as to place the business operations of the 
country under its control, and the debtor class at its mercy. Besides 
removing it, the government should, it seems to me. not only coin specie, 
but also furnish the paper needed for circulation. By making that paper 
receivable for all public dues, it could doubtless keep afloat a larger 
volume than we now have. To prevent depreciation, that paper should 
be exchangeal)le for government bonds at a rate of interest not above 
four per cent. In the first instance such paper should be exchanged for 
the present national bank notes, paid out for all its expenditures, except 
what it is bound to pay in specie, and in exchange for interest bearing 
bonds at a fair rate, until there was outstanding such a volume, as the 
wants of commerce and business required, to be lessened when neces- 
sary, by investment in bonds bearing a low rate of interest. 



[The speech which follows is published because it discusses the currency 
question in the first part of it, aud secondly for this reason: "Stump speak- 
ing," as it is often called, or addresses directly to the voters, is one of our 
most potent America institutions. During a great part of my life, I have 
been accustomed to practice it. From the day when, in the year 1835, 1 made 
my first speech as a candidate for the House of Commons in North Carolina, 
down to the present time, I have not written a single sentence to be used for 
snch a purpose. It was my custom always to speak directly to the people as 
I would talk to an acquaintance. By so doing, one not only secures the 
attention of the audience, but he makes a far better impression than he can 
by any other mode. , 

Hence I would advise all beginners to adopt this practice from the start. 
Most persons can easily do this, aud one who cannot, though he may make a 
successful lecturer, and even deliver eloquent orations, will never be able to 



(593) 

struggle in a hand to hand contest with an adversary, before a popular 
audience. 

Again, 1 have seen, as most persons, doubtless, have also done, that after 
speaking two or three times, before different audiences, I could present my 
views with more point and force than on tlie first o(;casion. Especially is this 
the case where one is interrupted by a question, and rallies his faculties under 
the stimulus of 0]>position. In my own canvasses the best points were thus 
furnished by irritated combativeness. 

After the delivery of the speech several gentlemen expressed a desire that 
it should be published for campaign purposes. To meet the issue of the 
foi'thcoming weekly paper, it was rather hurriedly prepared. With the excep- 
tion of some little hits thrown in to enliven the audience, which were pur- 
posely omitted, the gentlemen who heard it said that the report in all respects 
corresponded with the speech as delivered. It may, therefore, be regarded 
as a specimen of a " Buncombe speech," made by a Buncombe man.] 



SPEECH 

DELIVERED AT HENDERSONVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA, SEP- 
TEMBER 12, 1876. 

Gentlemen : Within the last twelve months I have been a repre- 
sentative in three Conventions, viz: that at Raleigh last autumn, 
called to amend our State Constitution; secondly, the Democratic Con- 
vention at Raleigh, which assembled in June, and nominated our excel- 
lent State ticket; and thirdly, the National Democratic Convention at 
St. Louis, which presented to the country Samuel J. Tilden and Thomas 
A. Hendricks as candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. 
I shall to-day offer to your consideration topics connected mainly with 
the action of the last of these Conventions. According to my usual 
custom, rejecting all mere ornament and rhetorical display, I shall 
address you directly, as a man in earnest speaks to a friend on a mat- 
ter of great importance. 

Wherever I go, gentlemen, I hear the complaint of hard times. Often 
it is said that the times are like they were in 1840. But in fact, in the 
year 1840 the depression and financial distress were not at all equal to 
what they are now. I was then an active canvasser in the presiden- 
tial campaign, and remember well the state of affairs then prevailing. 
There was no such scarcity of money as we now see. Though the 
banks had suspended specie payments, yet North and South Carolina 
bank notes were only two or three per cent, under par in New York, 
while such Georgia notes as I collected in our western counties were 
fourteen per cent, discount at the North, ranging about with the average 
value of the present greenback notes of the United States government. 
Business then went on nearly as usual, and people did not suffer for 
want of the necessaries of life in any part of the land. The condition 
of the country then bore the same relation to what we now witness as 
a panic or scare does to a serious wound. 

Though the present pressure was at first most .seriously felt in the 
West and South, it soon reached the Northern and Eastern States. It 
75 



(594) 

is now probably felt more seriously in New England and New York 
than it is here. The South had already been prostrated and, like a 
man on his back, did not seem to have far to fall. Though we have 
little or no money, yet provisions exist here in sufficient abundance to 
supply the absolute wants of all classes, and but for old debts and 
present heavy taxes, we would not, as a community, be distressed. In 
the North, however, millions of people depend on daily employment 
for support, and having been in large numbers without occupation for 
a long period, extensive and frightful sufferings exist among them. 
In some of the States, hundreds and thousands collect together, and 
under the designation of " tramps " rob railway trains. You know 
that formerly European emigrants came to this country at the rate of 
nearly half a million annually, because wages were higher here than 
they were in the old countries. But so many men are out of employ- 
ment now, and in a starving condition, than when some weeks ago in 
the city of New York, there was published an advertisement for a few 
stone cutters to go to Scotland to work, so many appeared that the 
streets around the building were blocked up, and the police were called 
in to keep order. The daily papers in that city slate that thirty 
thousand men there, would gladly go across the Atlantic to earn a sub- 
sistence. For recruits in the army good mechanics, who were formerly 
accustomed to receive three or four dollars per day, offer themselves 
at the rate of thirteen dollars per month, or thereabouts. 

But the present distress does not confine itself to the laboring glasses 
and the poor, but is now pressing upon those who thought themselves 
rich. Many whose incomes have fallen short, in order that they may 
live as they formerly did, have mortgaged their dwelling houses to 
procure the means of keeping up their former style. Peter Cooper, 
one of the wealthiest, most intelligent and honored residents of New 
York, stated recently that half the houses in that city were under 
mortgages, and that when sold generally did not bring enough to pay 
the debts on them. When in that city frequently, as I have been 
during the present year, references were made to. many costly houses, 
that were being sold for much less than half they would have brought 
three years ago. I might detain you for hours with details showing 
the distress and starvation prevailing. A similar condition exists in 
much of New England, and other portions of the Northern States. 
Some intelligent men make the estimate that there are a million of 
laborers out of employment, many of whom have exhausted their 
past earnings, and find subsistence with great difficulty. It is almost 
certain that notwithstanding the general industry of our citizens, 
which ought within the last three years, to have added greatly to the 
wealth of our country, the United States as a whole are poorer mate- 
rially, than the}^ were at that time, independently of the nominal 
shrinkage of values resulting from a diminished currency. This is 
due to the fact that capital has been unproductive, while laborers have 
been unemployed, and all classes to a great extent, have been eating 
up their former earnings. 

The momentous question presents itself, to what are we to attribute 
the fact that, in a time of profound peace, and in spite of the gen- 



( 595 ) 

eral industry and enterprise of our people, there is such a stagna- 
tion of business and so mucli suffering among the people? The 
Republican party has had, for the last sixteen years, the entire control 
of the government in all its departments. To excuse it from respon- 
sibility, its friends attribute the present state of the country to the 
late civil war. Undoubtedly an immense amount of capital was 
destroyed during the war which ought to have induced the govern- 
ment to deal as tenderly and gently with the people as its necessities 
would permit it to do. Its contrary action I shall presently show. 
But in fact that war ended more than eleven years ago, and until the 
past three years business was prosperous and the people were enjoying 
the comforts of life. Again, the organs of the party in power assert 
that the extravagance of the people is the sole cause of their distress. 
But wherever I have been, T find tiie people living on less than they 
previously did, and yet the times grow Vv'orse and worse from month 
to month. Neither of these excuses are sufficient to account for the 
remarkable condition of the country. 

Gentlemen, the present suffering of the people, is due almost entirely 
to the action of the government of the United States. Our condition 
is the direct result of the line of action adopted and prosecuted in- 
dustriously, b}' the government, and unless its [)olicy be changed, that 
condition will steadily become worse as each year rolls on in its course. 
I now propose to establish the truth of these two propositions to the 
conviction of every gentleman who will give me his attention. 

At the close of the late civil war the entire circulation, or paper 
credit of the country was fully equal to two thousand millions. Much 
of the government paper had been issued when one dollar of it did 
not represent forty cents in gold. Of course the people did their 
business on the basis of this circulation, and debts were contracted on 
it. If the volume of the currency had remained as it was, without 
change, this would have been perfectly fair to all parties, and the 
debtor would have paid to his creditor just as much as he owed. But 
the government adopted a policy which produced a rapid contraction 
of the currency, and greatly reduced tlie quantity afloat. This system 
was persevered in until the volume of the currency was reduced so 
that it was a little more thaii one-third of what it had been. The 
result was that in spite of the industrj^ and energy of its citizens, the 
country could no longer stand the pressure. Its back was broken, and 
the crash, erroneously termed a panic, came. As the weakest link in 
a chain is the first to give way, so such speculators as Jay Cooke 
were the first to go under. Instead of taking warning, and arresting 
the crushing operation, the government pressed it forward as fast as 
possible, until it made the suffering general. Thousands who felt 
secure and looked with satisfaction on the downfall of recMess specu- 
lators, as they were termed, have in succession gone under. And yet 
the "panic''^ moves on devouring one after another, like Sinbad's great 
serpent, until it is becoming the question, who is to escape its jaws'? 
Instead of having "touched bottom," as shallow men from time to 
time assert, the increased failures of the present year show that the 
country is failing faster than it has hitherto been doing. 



/^ (596) ' 

But gentlemen, I must call your attention to the most remarkable 
public crime that has ever been committed by our government, per- 
haps I might say in view of the circumstances, by any civilized gov- 
ernment. From the time of the foundation of our government, yes I 
may say from the times of the Patriarchs of the Bible, silver android 
have in all countries been regarded as precious metals, and in ancient 
as well as modern times have been used as money and performed its 
office among mankind. Our Constitution' declares tliem to be money 
and provides that "no State shall make anything but gold and silver 
coin a tender in payment of debt." They had both been used through- 
out the United States until the 12th day of February^ 1873. On that 
day, an act of Congress was passed whicii declared that silvev should 
not be a legal tender for any debt above five dollars. It was tims 
placed in a position similar to that occupied fey copper and nickel. 
This act was passed without any discussion, or general notice tq the 
people. In fact, members of the present Congress assure me, that 
when the bill, of whicli if was but a small j)art, was before the House, 
and it was proposed to let it go through without reading because it was 
a very long bill, relating mainly to the mints, the question was asked 
of the member reporting, as to whether it affected the status of silver, 
and that he answered that it did not. At any rate it was gotten 
through so surreptitiously and secretly, that President Grant seems to 
have signed the bill without any knowledge of this feature in it, for 
in a letter written to Mr. Cowdrey; ten months afterwards, he s})oke in 
hopeful terms of our soon having two or three hundred millions of 
dollars in circulation, as the product of our great silver mines in the 
west. Many members of Congress, both senators and representatives, 
last winter assured me that they were not aware that there was such a 
law, until the discussion commenced on the subject after their arrival 
in Washington. 

There were three reasons, each sufficient in itself, why no such 
measure as this should have been passed. In the first place, silver 
from the earliest historic times has been the money of the world. It 
is more stable in value than gold, and has been made money and 
a legal tender by the express words of our Constitution. Our people 
were accustomed to its use, and having both it and gold as money, or 
what is called the "double standard," they were better protected 
against fluctuations in the currency which might produce distress 
through sudden changes in the quantity of money afloat, This double 
standard tended to give stability just as a man stands more firmly on 
two legs thand he does on one. The goose is the only animal I know, 
that stands on one leg from choice, and he has never been regarded as 
famous for political or financial wisdom. In the second place the 
United States contracted a debt of more than two thousand millions of 
dollars, and this debt was expressly made payable in gold or silver. 
As silver was at that time rather the ch^srperof the two metals, the 
government could have paid its debt mo're easily in silver than gold, 
and yet silver was stricken down from iis position as money. Recol- 
lect that taking a long average of years, silver has constituted more than 
half the money of the world. By this act, as far as our country is con- 



( 597 ) 

cerned, half of the money of the world was destroyed, for silver and 
gold as money among civilized nations constitute the basis also of 
paper money. This act, by thus increasing enormously the burden of 
the country, was a great fraud and crime against the American people. 
Suppose that I was .by contract bound to pay an hundred bushels of 
grain per year for the next ten years, and it was expressly understood 
that I might at my option pay either in wheat or corn, would it not be a 
great wrong to provide that I should not be allowed to pay in corn 
when it was the cheaper, but should be compelled to pay in wheat 
only? This gentlemen is the bargain that our government has made 
for us. Some attempt to excuse it by alleging that Germany has 
lately, .following the example of England, demonetized silver. Ger- 
many having conquered France obtained a thousand millions indem- 
nity, and expecting to get it in gold, demonetized silver. Tliis' act of 
greedy folly has by the change, produced so much distress among their 
own people, that they are now trying to retrace their steps. The very 
fact that silver had thus been made cheaper in Germany, furnished 
one of the best of reasons why we should retain it as money so that it 
might flow to us, and assist us in paying our heavy debt. If corn 
were scarce in this county, it would be a great advantage to you if it 
were abundant and cheaper in the adjoining county of Buncombe, so 
that 3''ou might obtain it with ease to satisfy your wants. 

In the third place, the United States is the great silver producing 
country of the world, and, therefore, it is to our interest to give it as 
high a value as possible, and thus increase the amount of our own 
productions. England, on the contrary, is a great producer of gold 
from her Australian fields, while she has no great silver mines. In 
addition to this, she is the great creditor nation of the world, and 
wishes the rest of mankind to pay their debts to her in the costliest 
metal. She is wise enough to look to her own interest, and does not 
permit her statesmen to be seduced by bribes, or blandishments to 
betray her interests. 

For what reason, then, was this act perpetrated, which is estimated 
to have added five hundred millions to the burdensome debt ,of our 
country? Men do not usually commit a great crime and inflict 
immense sufferings on their countrymen wantonly, or without some 
adequate cause. We owe as a people, more than two thousand millions, 
and the bondholders, mostly foreigners, and other creditors, will be 
benefited by receiving their payments in gold rather than silver. By 
getting the more costly metal, and at the same time making money as 
scarce as possible, they will be able to buy more of the property o/ the 
countr}' with their gold. So, too, will all money holders and men who 
receive official salaries. Was it as General Banks, of Massaciiusetts, 
suggested lately in his speech in Congress, that the perpetrators of this 
crime were secretly operated on by these bondholders and their allies, 
and thus induced by stealthy fraud to increase the public and private 
debt of the country so heavily ? 

Remember, fellow-citizens, that when, in 1863, the volume of green-'' 
backs, and other paper representatives of money was greatest, less than 
forty dollars in gold would purchase one hundred dollars in paper 



(598) 

money. Hence, a thousand dollar bond was purchased for only four 
hundred dollars in gold, and since that time the action of the govern- 
ment has caused every one of the bonds to be worth, in fact, more than 
one thousand dollars in gold. Besides getting interest on what they 
paid, at the rate of fifteen per cent, in gold, for six per cent, on one 
hundred is equal to fiflcen per cent, on forty, these bondholders have 
secured a property worth two and one-half times as much as they paid 
for it. What justice, tlien, is there in thus giving them at the expense 
of the people a still greater sum? If I were to purchase from a man 
in distress for money, for one hundred dollars, a horse worth two hun- 
dred and fifty dollars, would it not be a monstrous wrong for me, in 
addition to the advantage I had obtained over him to seek by artful 
strategy to obtain from him an additional sum? And yet when a 
majority of the Democratic members, a few weeks since, were attempt- 
ing to repeal this iniquitous act, and da justice to the people by restor- 
ing silver to its place as money, they were denounced by the friends 
of the bondholders as attempting to commit a great fraud upon the 
country. It was said that as the bondholders had secretly gotten the 
advantage of the people three years ago, they ought not now to be 
obliged to give it up. It mattered nothing that the right which the 
people had enjoyed for nearly a century, guaranteed by the Constitu- 
tion of their country, and on the faith of which they had contracted 
debts, had been stealthily taken from them. Oh, no! to take advan- 
tage of the people, and exact money from them above what they orig- 
inally owed, was all right, but it was a monstrous fraud to restore them 
justice. If a man had secretly stolen my horse three months ago, and 
I to-day were to find him in the possession of the thief, and were to 
attempt to reclaim him, and that thief were to exclaim, "Oh! you 
must not take this horse from me, I stole him while you were asleep 
so secretly that you knew nothing of it. I have had him in possession, 
and have gotten credit with my butcher and others by parading him 
in public, and you will commit a great fraud on me if you take him 
back." Such declarations on his part would not present an exhibition 
of more impudence and effrontery, than are many declaration of the 
advocates of this silver fraud. 

If, gentlemen, the house of any of you before me, was levied on for 
the trifling sum of ten dollars, and you carried to the sheriff" ten dollars 
of the silver coin of the United States, it would be no more a legal pay- 
ment than if you carried up a bar of lead or iron. It is now no more 
money by law than would be ten bushels of wheat, which your credi- 
tors might, at his option, take or refuse. 

After this deep distress had fallen on the country, the party in power 
brought forward as a measure of relief their resumption act. It in 
substance is intended to provide that on the first of January, 1879, or a 
little more than two j^ears hence, the government shall take out of 
circulation all the greenback notes now afloat, by exchanging gold 
interest bonds for them, or paying them off in coin, so that there will 
be no paper money in circulation except national bank notes. But as 
the act also compels the national banks to resume specie payment, it 
will greatly diminish, if it does not in fact, destroy their circulation 



(599) 

entirely. These banks are by law compelled to keep besides govern- 
ment bonds, twenty-five'per cent of lawful money, and after the green- 
backs have been taken up, silver having already ceased to be money, 
gold is the only thing left for them. As gold is too scarce in the world 
for them to be able to procure much of it, they have been obliged to 
commence calling in their circulation. Undf,r this operation a large 
number of their notes have been called in. The National Republican^ 
the organ of the administration at Wasliington, in its issue of tlie 4th 
of the present month, in presenting the weekly financial exhibit shows 
that for the last week ending Saturday 2d, there had been forwarded 
to the Treasury for redemption $4,174,000, against $3,479,000 for the 
corresponding week of last year. From this it appears how the 
national bank notes are being called in, per week, and that the velocity 
is an increasing one from year to year. All the notes may be called 
in within the time prescribed. Such is the pressure on them owing 
to the menace held over them by the resumption act, that banks in 
this State will not lend money for short periods at 12 per cent. If an}'- 
man in large business were obliged to pay every debt he owed on a 
given day not far off, he would be afraid to lend, but on the contrary 
would endeavor at once to collect all due him. Such is now the situ- 
ation of some two thousand banks with an aggregate capital of $350,- 
000,000, or ten times that of the old United States bank, the contrac- 
tion of which in a small degree, only when the deposits were removed 
from it, was sufficient to produce the great panic and distress experi- 
enced in 1834. 

A number of the national banks have already been compelled to wind 
up their business entirely. One of the national bank presidents at 
Raleigh, who had been engaged in similar business before the war, 
assured me last October that he was satisfied that there was not even 
then one-fifteenth as much currency furnished to our State as we had 
in 1860. In other words, for every dollar then furnished to our people, 
in the year 1860 we had $15. Then, too, all our bank notes were as 
good as gold. If we need now, as I believe we do, about as much cur- 
rency as we used before the war, is it strange that the present suffering 
should exist? 

But this, gentlemen, is not all the painful story. The government 
is, also, as speedily as it can, calling in its greenback notes. The candle 
is burning rapidly at both ends, and they will be able to consume it 
entirely within two years. Then we must depend on gold alone for 
circulation. Will this, gentlemen, answer your purposes? 

The highest reliable estimate places all the gold in the United States 
at $140,000,000. Of this amount the government requires to pay its 
interest on the bonds and for the sinking fund, $130,000,000, leaving 
about $10,000,000 only for the people of the United States with which 
they must pay all their debts and taxes. 

Let us try to realize our situation when brought to this condition. 
The taxes of Buncombe county last year amounted to $28,000. Intel- 
ligent men believe that outside of a little gold some of the banks are 
compelled to hold, there is not in the State among the people probably, 
gold enough to pay the taxes of this single county, to say nothing of 



(600) 

the rest of the State, and all the debts the people owe to each other, 
besides the enormous sum of Federal taxation, of which I shall speak 
presently. If the taxes of the present year were collected in gold only, 
a single man with an hundred thousand dollars in gold might become 
the owner of the greater part of the property of the State. 

This, fellow-citizens, is not exaggerated, but a picture that confronts 
us in the near future if our progress towards it be not arrested. Mr. 
Hayes, the Republican candidate for the Presidency, declares that he 
is in favor of coming to this condition of affairs by the first of Jan- 
uary, 1879, unless some one will show him a shorter road to reach the 
same point. With these great facts staring us in the face like the 
noon day sun, men say they cannot account for the hard times. Sup- 
pose that a man with his hands tied, lay on his back, and we saw a 
rope about his neck, and two other men holding the ends of the rope 
and pulling it strongly, and saw that the prostrate man was panting 
and flushed in the face and struggling with his feet, and you heard it 
said, " the man pants and struggles because the rope is not pulled 
tight enough." Yes, if the rope be pulled tighter, he will cease to 
breathe hard, and no longer struggle with his feet, for he will be dead. 
But as a strong man will struggle terribly to save his life, so must the 
people of this great country struggle, to save themselves from de- 
struction. 

Gentlemen, I seek not to alarm you, but when 1 " speak the words 
of truth and soberness," I know that to one who did not see the facts, 
they would seem like the exaggerations of a Tiberius Grachus. 

Is it not strange that the government should be anxious to call in 
the greenback circulation, which the peo{)le are glad to use, and on 
which it does not pay any interest? If the government would receive 
them for all its dues, those greenbacks, like the treasury notes issued 
in the times of Van Buren and Polk, would be equal with gold. To 
pay its coin interest it would then be much easier for the government 
to buy one hundred millions of coin than it now is, for the merchants 
to purchase two hundred million of gold to pay tariff taxes. The fact 
that the merchants are compelled to purchase this large sum of coin to 
pay the government, which will not receive its own paper, is the prin- 
cipal reason why gold is so high in this country. I ask again, why is 
it, that the government is so anxious to get rid of notes on which it 
pays no interest, and issue instead bonds on which it must pay interest 
in gold coin? I can imagine but two reasons, the first of which is, 
that it can thus favor those whom it wishes to befriend, by letting them 
have bonds, which they can sell at a profit in Europe. Secondly, by 
thus sending money to pay the interest on these bonds, and also by 
removing all the greenbacks from circulation, they will make money 
scarce here, and thus enable the few who hold money to obtain a large 
amount of the property of the country for it. Are we not now to 
meet the attempt, to make the United States a great plantation, owned 
by a privileged class and worked by a population of paupers? 

It is impossible to suppose that those managing the affairs of the 
government, should not see what is to be the result of their action. 
It is my conviction, that they are deliberately laboring to produce such 



( 601 ) 

a condition as I have described. If this be so, then the money holders 
who are allied to them, do not desire a restoration of prosperity for the 
masses. If an epidemic were prevailing among the horses, the buz- 
zards would not strive to arrest it. As they, from the tree tops, beheld 
horses die, they would joyfully exclaim, as one of the leading money 
organs does when there is a large financial failure : " Another weak 
constitution has been weeded out;" there is another carcass to be 
preyed on. Of course cunning men can find a way 7iot to relieve the 
country. 

But, gentlemen, there are other causes for our present distressed con- 
dition, inferior only to the gigantic one I have been discussing. Since 
the war there has been taken from the people by taxation on an aver- 
age fully ^400,000,000 per annum, for the purposes of the Federal 
government. To give persons who have not made calculations an 
idea of what this immense sum constitutes, let us make use of this 
explanation. Forty thousand dollars of silver weighs one ton, or a 
fair four horse load on our roads. One million, therefore, will load 
twenty-five of such wagons, and four hundred millions would make 
ten thousand such wagon loads. As wagons are usually driven along 
a road following each other, they would extend one handred miles in 
length. An hundred miles of silver gives us an idea of how much of 
the people's money collected by taxation, the government is annually 
spending. Or to take another illustration. Suppose we have two 
hundred thousand voters in the State, which is rather more than we 
have yet voted. If a laborer should, after paying for his board and 
clothing, save fifty cents per day, he would, in three hundred working 
days, save one hundred and fifty dollars. It is not probable that the 
laborers of the State, on an average, realize as clear money, above one 
hundred and fifty dollars per year, to say nothing of the cost of their 
families. The work of the two hundred thousand, for a day, is worth 
$100,000. Counting three hundred working days for the year, it 
would require that they should work at this rate, for more than thir- 
teen years, to pay one year's expenses of the government of the United 
States. Think of this, gentlemen. It takes thirteen years labor of all 
our voters, at the usual rate of wages, to pay what the government 
spends in a single year. It is no wonder, therefore, that able men cal- 
culate that the debts of the government, and all the States, counties, 
and towns are equal, if reduced to a gold basis, to all the property in 
the country. Certainly, as a people, we shall grow poorer and poorer, 
unless we arrest these movements. 

But, again, President Grant, in his message to Congress in Decem- 
ber, 1871, calls the attention of that body in emphatic terms to the 
report of his civil service commissioners, in which they state that from 
the best information they could obtain, one-fourth of the money levied 
on the people did not reach the treasurv. As in the previous year, 
upwards of §400,000,000 was paid in, $133,000,000 must have been 
embezzled by Grant's subordinate officers. In confirmation of this 
estimate, in the course of the debate in the Senate during the last 
session, in which Senators on botli sides took part, it was considered 
that the loss in taxes to the government, on spirits alone, by delin- 
76 



( 602 ) 

quent officers, since the war, amounted to thirteen hundred million 
of dollars. This immense sum is exclusive of losses on tobacco and 
tariff taxes. During Tyler's administration, who was in office when 
you first elected me to Congress, the whole expanses of his term of 
four years amounted to only about $85,000,000. It thus appears that 
according to the calculations of Grant and his civil service commis- 
sioners, the stealage of the officers under him in a single year, was 
sufficient for six years' expenditure under such an administration 
as that of Tyler. This sum of one hundred and thirty millions 
will be sufficient to require a line of wagons thirty miles long, and 
also demands more than four years of additional labor of all our 
voters to cover its cost. 

Even these immense figures do not give us an adequate idea of the 
exactions on the people through the action of the government. 

It is estimated by many well informed persons that of the tariff 
taxes paid by the people, on many articles, at least foar- fifths does not 
go into the treasury, but is paid to the manufacturers as a bounty. 
Thus when a thousand dollars' worth of iron is bought for some of our 
railroads, in addition to this, at the rate of fifty per cent, duty, (the 
tarifi" taxes are generally higher than this) five hundred dollars has 
to be pain. If four-fifths of this iron be made in this country, then 
the manufacturers get four hundred dollars and the treasury only 
receive one hundred dollars. Hence, when the government collects 
two hundred millions, in gold, a mucli larger sum goes to the manu- 
facturers, chiefly in the Northeastern States, so that the West and the 
South are the principal sufferers from this cause. It would not be 
difficult to so arrange a tariff, that while the people paid less, the gov- 
ernment might receive a much larger sum than it does, and then if it 
were economically administered, the vexatious internal revenue taxes 
might be abolished entirely. 

Unparalleled official corruption and peculation is also brought to 
your attention. The investigation of the Democratic House of Rep- 
resentatives have fullv confirmed what President Grant said of the 
embezzlement of his subordinates. Belknap, his Secretary of War, 
and one of his most trusted friends, by indubitable proof, and his own 
confession of guilt, has been convicted of selling the offices in his 
department for large sums of money for his own private use. Even 
the President's brother, Orville Grant, had a number of offices turned 
over to hira in order that, by selling them out, he might make money 
for himself. Certain friends of Robeson, Secretary of the Navy, have 
been selling the contracts at his disposal to persons who paid them as 
much as fifty thousand dollars at a time. Would he permit such a 
system to be carried on, unless he were equally guilty with Belknap? 
In the Interior department, the Indian and Land offices are regarded 
as the most corrupt branches of the administration. 

In the Treasury Department, because Secretary Bristow prosecuted 
and convicted some of the whiskey thieves, he was obliged to get out 
of the office. A man who interferes vigorously with the operations 
of the thieves under him seems to be regarded as a wrong-doer. In 
like manner, Jewell, the Postmaster General, because he tried to put a 



(603) 

stop to the frauds by which his Department was robbed of large sums 
of money, was driven out of office. A stranger who looked upon the 
operations of our government for the first time, might suppose it was 
simply a system of machinery devised to extract money from the 
people and bestow it on knaves. The Minister at the Court of Great 
Britain, Schenck, was disgracefully driven by public opinion from his 
position, because he sold the influence of that position* for a valuable 
consideration, to a mining company, by which it was enabled to de- 
fraud innocent purchasers. The representative of the United States 
at the great Vienna exhibition, by his corrupt practices, covered him- 
self with infamy and disgraced his country in the eyes of the nations 
of the earth. As Napoleon said, " Scratch the skin of a Russian and 
you will find a Tartar under it !" So it seems that when you probe 
this administration, you find it corrupt in all its branches. 

When we call upon the people to remove from office the party which 
it represents, its friends attempt to defend it, not on any merit of its 
own, but by holding out the " bloody shirt," and by the use of money. 
They say, " corrupt as we are, you had better let us hold the govern- 
ment, than to allow a Democratic President to come in, because he 
might appoint some of the 'rebels' to office." If it were not for such 
appeals as this, the people of the North would en mame join us in turn- 
ing them out. The Republican organs and orators, direct against us a 
constant torrent of denunciation and calumny. Such is the eff'ectof their 
falsehood, that though, as you all know, thousands of men from the 
North are passing through our State, and stopping among us without 
molestation, yet I am often asked this question in Northern cities, 
" When will it be safe for a Northern man to go down in your State ? 
I would like to go into North Carolina, if it were safe for me to do so." 
They declare that we intimidate and assault the negroes, to prevent 
their voting the Republican ticket. The only disturbance on an elec- 
tion day that I ever heard of, on account of politics, was the attack of 
a crowd of negroes on the mulatto man, Silas, at Asheville, some years 
ago, because he voted the Democratic ticket. It is true, that some 
negroes, whom I have known for the last twenty years, have told me 
that they would vote for the Democrats, if they were not afraid of 
their "leagues^'' but I have never yet heard of a single effort having 
been made to intimidate a negro, to prevent his voting for the Repub- 
licans. 

Nevertheless, such is the prejudice excited against our section at the 
North, that its eff'ects fall heavily on the Southern Republicans. A 
few years since, in the hall of the House of Rej)resentatives, I acci- 
dentally approached four North Carolina Republican Representatives, 
three of whom were natives, and the other termed a "carpet-bagger." 
I do not choose to call their names, though one of them sits before me, 
and another was then our own immediate representative. They said, 
"General, we have just been speaking of the manner in which our 
own political associates from the North treat us. They do not show 
us a particle of respect. Those Democratic members, on the other side 
of the House, show us more consideration than our own political 
friends do." Similar complaints are made to me by other Southern 



^604) 

Republicans. But they ought not to be surprised, for such treatment 
is but natural. If a man strives to elect himself to an office by 
abusing me, and I were to vote for him, nevertheless, he would feel a 
contempt for me. A dog may lick the foot that kicked him, but no 
man with self-respect or courage can. Though North Carolina has 
twice voted for Grant, yet the share of the offices at Washington, 
which the Republicans of this State have gotten, is so beggarly as to 
remind us of a hit made at a certain politician in the centre of this 
State, of whom it was said that he "washed the dirty clothes of his 
party, and took his pay in the soap-suds left." This satire represents 
the fate of Southern Republicans. I ask you, gentlemen, as well as 
politicians, how can you continue to act with a party whose main 
chance to sustain itself consists in its denunciation of your section? 
If it were not for the prejudice thus engendered against you in the 
minds of the Northern people, they would drive the Republicans from 
power with one universal shout of indignation. 

Their second reliance is in the use of money. I was, gentlemen, as 
most of you know, elected from this Congressional District for fourteen 
years, and subsequently twice elected to the Senate of the United 
States. During no one of my canvasses was there, as far as I know, a 
single dollar expended to aid me, and my own expenditures, including 
hotel bills, the cost of printing my tickets, and all other expenses, I 
feel confident, were not two hundred and fifty dollars. In the present 
year, one of our Democratic candidates in the East assured me, that he 
was well satisfied that eleven thousand dollars had already been sent 
to his district to be used against him, and I was told at Washington, 
that our opponents would use at least one hundred thousand dollars 
to carry this State. 

Gentlemen, before the war an able-bodied negro slave readily com- 
manded $1,500, and it used to be said that " a white man was as good 
as a negro if he behaved himself." If any of you sell yourselves, you 
ought at least to get fifteen hundred dollars in cash down. I under- 
stand, however, it is not expected that the money should be paid di- 
rectly to the voters, but that it is to be given to certain individuals, who 
claim to be able each to control a certain number of voters. How do 
you like this idea? Esau sold his birthright for mess of pottage, but 
then Esau intended to eat the pottage himself. You are asked to sell 
your birthright for pottage for the revenuersand their associates to eat. 
General Leach told me that when he was last a candidate, the agents 
in his district to whom the Republican managers gave their money, 
stole it themselves, so that it never reached the voters for whom it was 
intended. In this view of the case, I would advise those who are in 
market, to " look sharp" lest they -may be defrauded. 

It was ever my pleasure, gentlemen, to owe my success to the 
unbought sufi'rages of a free people. I trust that it may be well under- 
stood that my political friends are to make no expenditure, except for 
the printing and circulation of such documents as may be necessary to 
give information to the people. 

We could not hope to compete with our adversaries in a money con- 
test. They have arrayed, on their side, not only the great bondhold- 



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ing, and other money interests, but they have a countless horde of 
office-holders. Since Grant was inaugurated, in time of profound 
peace, the number of officers has been increased from upwards of 
54,000 to 90,000. You see how they swarm around you like flies 
about a horse, on a warm evening. Judge Dick, of the Federal 
Court, said on the bench not long since, tliat this district had more 
than ten times it share in proportion to the rest of the United States, 
You, gentlemen, know, and see, that their principle busijiess is to elec- 
tioneer for their party, because there being few negroes here, unless 
they can by such means prevent it, they know that the vote of the 
white men will settle the State against them. 

All these officers are taxed in every election for party purposes. 
One of their most prominent and respectable officers, at Asheville, 
told me a few days since, in the presence of several gentlemen, that he 
had been compelled last year, in the Convention election of our State, 
to pay three hundred dollars for the use of his party. Another prom- 
inent member of the party, who has filled high positions in it, told me 
this week, that in the Eastern part of the State they were taxed five 
per cent, of their salaries. At Washington, as I see from the papers 
lately, they call up the officers, even the women clerks, on pay day, 
and make them pay two per cent, of their salaries to raise an election- 
eering fund. 

Gentlemen, these things are so astonishing, that I do not wonder 
that you seem surprised. How different it was in the old Democratic 
and Whig times. Mr. Jefferson, after his election, told his officers that 
they ought not to interfere with popular elections. When General 
Harrison was inaugurated, his Secretary of State, Mr. Webster, issued.,, 
by his order, a proclamation forbidding the executive office-holders 
to attempt to influence the elections. If, during my entire term in 
Congress, any President had permitted his officers to be thus taxed, 
and that fact had been made public, I should have felt it my duty to 
move articles of impeachment against him. I have no doubt that 
such a motion would have been sustained by an unanimous vote. 
Under the party, at present in power, the officers are not only to be 
as active as they may choose to be, but they are required to work, and 
in addition to this, are compelled to pay part of their salaries to sup- 
port the party. The people are heavily taxed for useless officers, and 
in turn these officers are taxed to keep the people in bondage, or sub- 
ject to them. In our Declaration of Independence against Great 
Britain, one of the principal grievances set forth is the charge that the 
King of Great Britain had "sent into the country a swarm of officers 
to eat out the substance of the people." What would the patriots of 
that day have thought of such a swarm as we now have in the United 
States, constituting, as they do, an immense band of hired mercenaries, 
Julius Csesar said, "give me money, and with it I can hire men, and 
with these men I will be able to get more money and men; and in 
time. I will become the master of the world." Messrs. Clay, Webster and 
Calhoun, forty years ago, made their ablest speeches against the dangers 
to be apprehendsd from an alliance between the money power and the 
government with its official patronage. In such a contingency they 



(606) 

doubted if the people would be able to retain their liberties. We now 
have a body of officers immensely exceeding in number what they 
dreamed of as probable, in close alliance with a system of national 
banks, having an aggregate capital tenfold greater than that of the 
old United States bank, aided by the influence of an additional money- 
power, represented by the holders of two thousand million dollars of 
government debt. 

It is this immense force that secures orators and newspapers to mis- 
lead the people, and blind them as to their true interests, and keep 
them divided by immaterial issues. 

While they, by misrepresenation and calumny, strive thus to array 
the Northern people against us as a section, they, on the other hand, 
have been rallying the colored voters against us, first, by promising 
them land and mules, and when that deception could no longer be 
used, and other falsehoods had been found unavailing, they have 
sought to hold them embodied against us by the civil rights act. That 
act was urged by some of the prominent negroes and mulattoes about 
W^ashington, who were anxious to secure higher social position and 
white wives. They threaten to carry the body of negro voters against 
the Republicans unless such measures are passed. The pretence that 
this act was passed from feelings of sympathy for the colored race is 
transparent hypocrisy, for there have always been free negroes in the 
North, who were treated as inferiors, and yet even the Abolitionists 
never procured the passage in any State of such a law as this. If there 
were negroes enough among them to be troublesome, they would not 
tolerate such a law for a single day. Only last week the papers stated 
that at Newport, Rhode Island, one of the most decided Republican 
States, a Southern negro married a white woman, and a crowd of men 
and women folio ived them home, and stoned the house in which they 
took refuge. They impose these things on us, partly to secure the sup- 
port of the negroes, and also to gratify the malignity of our violent 
enemies, who would like to see us degraded to the condition of some 
of the mongrel and mulatto countries south of us, so that we might be 
easily kept in subjection. 

The policy of the Republican party thus appears to be to oppress us 
with heavy taxation and negro equality. The Democratic party are 
for low taxes and separation of the two races. In accordance with 
these principles, here in our own State, our late Convention, by the 
amendments proposed for your adoption, seeks to greatl}' reduce your 
taxation and expenses, and to resist negro equality by providing sep- 
arate schools, forbidding marriage between the races, and the binding 
out of white orphan girls and boys to negro masters. Others will 
explain these points fully to you. In their eflports to retain power, our 
opponents show themselves ready to array the North against the 
South, the negro against the white man, and one christian denomina- 
tion against another. 

Our adversaries are cunning in their strategy. For example, they 
tell us that the times are hard in England and other European 
countries. But the United States was the principal customer of Great 
Britain, and, therefore, when we ceased to be able to buy their pro- 



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ductions, they, after a time, began to suffer from the loss of trade. 
The suffering here was produced by the direct action of our gov- 
ernment. If the government of Great Britain, were by its conduct, to 
produce one-tenth part of the injury, that we have suffered, a change 
of the ministry would be the result. A like state of suffering, from 
similar causes in France, would produce a revolution there in three days. 
It remains to be seen, whether or not, the American people will sit 
quiet and mute, and allow themselves to be strangled, like the Turks 
submit to the plague as the decree of fate, and the Hindoos rested 
while being robbed to starvation, by the agents of the East India Com- 
pany. If they are not prepared to be thus destroyed, then they must 
gird up their loins and stand like men. 

Again, the Republican organs tell us that if we can just get rid of 
all paper money, a great stream of gold will flow into the country in 
exchange for our products sent abroad. They know well that for ten 
years past our imports from foreign countries exceed in value, what we 
export to them, and that every year we are sending abroad gold and 
silver taken from our mines to reduce the balance against us. When, 
for example, a bale of cotton is sent to France, instead of its value in 
gold, a silk dress or some other commodity comes back in its place. 
They know full well, that if we had all the gold even in the world it 
would scarcely be sufficient to pay off all the public debts of the 
United States, the separate States, and corporations. They know, too, 
equally well, that in the struggle of all the nations of the earth for this 
gold, the share we could obtain, would be ten times less than what we 
need to carry on the business of the country. 

The wealthy men ought to see that by oppressing the laboring- 
classes they will, injthe end, injure themselves. Their conduct reverses 
the fable of Menenius Agrippa. Instead of the members conspiring 
against the belly, in their case it is the belly that makes war upon the 
members to which it must look to be fed. If they destroy the busi- 
ness of the country, they cannot realize profits from their capital. 
Besides, all men of intelligence should see that a continuance of the 
present condition of affairs must destroy our free system. All the great 
empires of antiquity perished from internal corruption. In modern 
times we have similar examples. Santa Anna said he could not keep 
up armies in Mexico, because his subordinate officers embezzled all the 
money he gave them to maintain his soldiers in the field. During the 
Crimean war the Emperor of Russia made a similar complaint. The 
recent downfall of the Emperor Napoleon was largely due to the fact, 
that his officers appropriated the public money given them to hire 
soldiers, and furnished instead on paper, fictitious lists of names, with- 
out men in the ranks to represent them. The present condition of 
our navy, notwithstanding the large appropriations made for it, 
reminds us of these things. 

Perhaps, fellow-citizens, the most remarkable feature of the present 
canvass is a circular of the Attorney-General of the United States. As 
it is published generally, I need not read it at length. It declares in 
plain language that each Marshal of the United States has the right, 
at his own will, to appoint as many deputies as he chooses, and that 



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each and every one of these Deputy Marshals has the right to arrest 
any one that he believes has hindered any person from registration. 
or voting, or injured him for so doing, or any person whom he believes 
has conspired for any such purpose. Secondly, that he has the right 
to summon to aid him in making or carrying out such arrests, any 
person above the age of fifteen years, no matter what may be the occu- 
pation or station of such persons, whether civil or military; and that 
he may also summons to his assistance any sheriff and his jwsse comi- 
tatus. He further states that these Deputy Marshals shall disregard 
any State official, or any State law, or process whatever from any offi- 
cial. In effect, the Marshal of this District may, if he chooses appoint 
thousands of Deputies, and any one of these Deputies may arrest at 
his will the most respectable man now present, and should the Judge 
now holding this court issue his writ of habeas coj'jyits, in order that he 
may enquire why this arrest has been made, the Marshal shall disregard 
such a writ, and may even summon the Judge to guard his prisoner. 
Under these instructions of the Attorney-General, one of these Depu- 
ties might have arrested tlie Judge who has to-day been holding court, 
and if the Sheriff had then been with his 2)osse in the act of carrying a 
prisoner to jail, this Deputy Marshal, such as some you have among 
you, might have summoned the Sheriff with his j^osse instantly to 
come and guard the Judge. In such a case neither the Supreme 
Court of our State, nor any officer in it, has the right to interfere to 
protect the liberty of our citizens. If such a condition of things 
as this be not irresponsible tyrrany, I know not what can constitute 
it. No king of Great Britain ever pretended to have such power. 
Our ancestors rebelled against one king for much less cause than 
this; and now it seems we are to have a countless number of petty 
tyrants, each of ,whom is absolute in his sway. It remains to be 
seen, if the people of the Northern States will tolerate the loss of 
their own liberty merely to enable the Republican party to main- 
tain itself in power. You have, fellow-citizens, already felt the evils 
resulting from the privileges given to this class of officers. In more 
than one instance, in this region, have citizens been shot down by 
them, in some cases without a color of legal excuse, and after indict- 
ment in our State court, the case has been referred to the Federal 
court. There, before a friendly Judge, defended by the United 
States District Attorney, tried by a jury, composed of the friends of 
the officers and ignorant negroes, who are induced to believe that if 
they do not sustain the officers they will themselves be again reduced 
to slavery, the acquital is easy and certain. I know, gentlemen, well 
the difficulties whicli surround us. Though two-thirds probably of all 
the property in the State was destroyed by the war, yet our people 
went resolutely to work to repair their losses, and seemed to be making- 
much progress. Since the reconstruction acts, our credit has been 
destroyed, and we are overwhelmed with debt. Notwithstanding these 
things, the people have been quiet generally, and probably no State 
has, for some years past, been freer from crime, and every citizen votes 
and speaks as he chooses, without threat or molestation. And yet, in 
spite of all this, in a late issue of the National RepuhliGan, the gov- 



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eminent organ at Washington, it is stated that unless we change our 
course and please them better, the lines of the States in the South 
must be disregarded, the territory must be cut up into districts, and 
governed by military commanders. In the case of violent collisions, 
which have sometimes occurred in portions of the South between the 
races, many of them, like that at Asheville, which I witnessed, as it 
was clearly shown then, were instigated by white Republicans ex- 
pressly for political effect. But for such interferences, the two races 
would move on harmoniously together in the enjoyment of their legal 
and political rights. 

What, fellow-citizens, is the attitude of the two parties, with respect 
to these issues? That of the Republican is well known. Though after 
the war ended, the principal of the debt of the government was paya- 
ble in greenbacks according to such authorities as Thad. Stevens and 
B. F. Butler, yet the party in 18G9, against the vote of every Democrat, 
made it payable in coin. This act doubled the value of the bonds, 
increased the debt in that ratio, and added proportionately to the bur- 
den of the people. Not content with this, they demonetized silver, as 
already stated, and then, still further to add to the distress of the 
country, they passed the resumption act to destroy the paper circulation. 
The party is now being pressed forward by its leaders in this course. 
Mr. Hayes, their Presidential candidate, declares that he is in favor of 
resuming specie payment at the time indicated, unless a still more 
speedy measure can be invented. He is for strangling the country 
then, unless some one will show him how to do it sooner. Under him, 
too, the old officials, with their corrupt practices, are to be retained in 
their places. 

The position of the Democratic party is the reverse of this. In the 
present Congress, in spite of the opposition of the Republicans, they ob- 
tained a vote of nearly two-thirds in favor of restoring silver to its posi- 
tion as money. Our platform, as adopted at St. Louis, declares for a re- 
peal of the Resumption Act. We are, in the first place, for taking the 
rope from the man's neck who is about to be strangled, and then if he 
does not recover of himself, we will give suitable remedies. In other 
words, after the country is relieved from its pressure, if prosperity does 
not return, other measures will be adopted. The present national bank 
system may be essentially modified. Probably the greenbacks may be 
made receivable for all the government dues, so that like the Treasury 
notes that were issued in former times, they may become of equal 
value with gold. Though France, after being conquered by Prussia, 
and obliged to pay an enormous fine, had afloat $002,000,000 of incon- 
vertible notes like our greenbacks, but nearly twice as much as we 
have, by simply agreeing that they should be received for all debts to 
government, she made them of equal value with gold. Why should 
not the same be done here ? If we put in able and patriotic men, who 
are willing to relieve the country, they will find a way to do it. 

The Democracy have a majority in the present House of Represen- 
tatives, and in spite of the opposition of the Republican Senate, they 
succeeded in reducing the expenses of the government nearly $30,000,- 
000 below last year's expenses. But there was some reduction last year 
77 



(610) 

below the previous rate, and Republicans claim credit for this; but in 
fact why was it done by them? The election in 1874 showed great 
Democratic gains; the people were rising in their might and demand- 
ing reform. Seeing that there would be a large majority of Democrats 
in the next House to overhaul their doings, the Republicants went to 
work to set their house in order that they might die with decency. 
"Coming events cast their shadows before them," and the shadows of 
the national Democracy, as they marched forward, fell over them, and 
filled them with alarm. And when the Democrats actually came in, 
though compelled to fight both the Senate and the President, they 
effected these great results. Let us this year give them all the depart- 
ments and we may hope for complete relief. 

In Gov. Samuel J. Tilden we have the right man for this work. 
About six years ago he discovered that there had been fraudulent 
embezzlements of the public funds in New York. He took the matter 
in hand and prosecuted the guilty so vigorously that he broke up the 
ring, scattered its members, and got some of the more guilty into the 
penitentiary. His work was done so thoroughly and successfully, that 
the people of his State insisted on running him for the office of Gov- 
ernor. His opponent. Gov. Dix, was the strongest man tlie Republi- 
cans had in their ranks, and had been elected to the office by 50,000 
majority. Tilden beat him by 51,000 votes, making the enormous 
gain of more than 100,000 votes. When he became Governor he did 
not rest on what he had done. There was in the State an immense 
combination of bad men of both parties, known as the " canal ring." 
With great labor he succeeded in breaking it up, and convicting many 
of its leaders. This ring had for years existed, and though composed 
mainly of Republicans, it had drawn into it, for the sake of their 
influence, some dishonest Democrats. Its power may be judged from 
this circumstance. Formerly the State of New York derived a large 
revenue from the tolls on its great canals, but this was all stopped by 
this ring, and they actually had the influence to obtain in taxes, from 
the people, to keep the canals in order, |2,400,000. Governor Tilden 
stopped this great stealing operation, and relieved the State from this 
immense tax on the people, and now the canals are in better condition 
without this subsidy than they were with it in the hands of the 
thieves. 

He has also reduced the expenses of the State government from sixteen 
millions a year to little above eight millions. So overwliehning is his 
popularity that the people of his State presented him at St. Louis for 
our Presidential candidate, and pressed his claims with the most 
unbounded enthusiasm. 

Gentlemen, is he not just such a man as we need to take charge both 
of our State and national governments ? When Tilden is inaugurated at 
Washington, as I believe he will be on the 4th of March next, ho will find 
such an immense operation before him that I think lie will have to try 
the plan of Hercules. As you doubtless remember, Hercules was a 
bound boy, and like other boys in that condition, he was compelled to 
do a great amount of hard w^ork. He was so strong, and worked so 
rapidly that he was obliged to travel from place to place to obtain era- 



(611) 

ploymeut. Durino; his raiiil>liiigs he came into the dominions of a certain 
Kino; Aui^ens. This king was a oreat stock raiser, and he had kept 
30,ti()0 yoke of oxen for thirty years in one stable without ever havin^j 
it cleaned out. Hercules undertook the job, but on looking into it, he 
saw it was useless to try it with the spade. There was a considerable 
river not far off, on high ground. Hercules tore open the side of the 
mountain, and let the water down into the stables, and everything was 
thus svi'ept out. 

Providence, who foresees all things, and in His goodness provides for 
all things, has created on this continent such rivers as Hercules never 
saw wiien he marched through Greece. On the North there is the great 
St. Lawrence, with its immense column of blue water at Niagara; then 
west of the Alleghanies is the beautiful Ohio and the majestic Missis- 
sippi, the father of rivers, and the mighty Missouri, rising in the Rocky 
Mountains 10,000 feet above the sea, and coming down with the falling 
force of its two miles descent. Tilden will combine all these ri\'ers into 
one mighty mass of falling water, and direct its immense volume against 
the city of Washington, and as it sweeps through the White House and 
the various Departments of the government, there will be a froth, a foam 
and a filth never hitherto seen. In its onward course, carrying such a 
load with it, it will sweep across the Chesapeake Bay and out into the 
broad Atlantic. But when it strikes against the Gulf Stream, that great 
ocean river, seventy miles wide, and running with the S]ieed of the Mis- 
sissippi itself, it will, I think, be deflected northward. The first land it 
will strike against will be the State of Maine. It will carry along with 
it, some things not a stranger to that State. The " carpet-baggers " will 
all get a free ride home. With our approbation this time, they will go 
go back as dead-heads. Upon reflection I think that great advantage 
will result to the State of Maine from this operation, for some years ago 
I read in the Patent Office Report that the land in the State of Maine 
was so poor that a man could not support liimself by agriculture. This 
material, if we may judge of its qualities from the odors it sends out, is 
the strongest manure in the world, far surpassing Peruvian guano, 
or any other known substance. After fertilizing that State, it will be 
swei)t un northward, and the rocky coast of Labrador will bloom like a 
fl.ower garden, and Greenland will become green again, and the Esqui- 
maux Indians in their snow huts, will smell a sweet savor as it passes by. 
The greater portion of it will be carried to the North Pole, and there 
locked in everlasting ice, unless it shall occur that when " Satan is loosed 
for a season " to plague the nations, he should chance to })oko up his horn 
in that quarter, and by liberating it add to the aftliction of humanity. 

Wherever we look, gentlemen, there seems to be a growing desire for 
a change in the action of the government. When a great party is thrown 
out of office, it is sometimes said that it has lost the floating vote. Many 
suppose that the vote thus referred to, is that of persons without stability 
of purpose. But that class consists of individuals, who are secured on tiie 
day of the election by the agents of either party. This is not the vote, 
that usually is the instrument that throws out one party and jnits in 
another. There are in the country men of intelligence, principle, and 
great firmness of purpose, who scorn to be mere party " hacks." Their 
patriotism and integrity enable them to rise above mere party consider- 



(612) 

tions, and look to the great interest of their country. While true to prin- 
ciple, they may seem to be chanjjeable as respects party. Suppose that 
a shallow and superficial man should for the first time, enter a court 
room during a trial. After listening to the counsel of the plaintiff and 
then of the defendant, he will hear the charge of the Judge, which settles 
the case in favor of the plaintiff; when the next case comes up, he would 
be ready to say, he knew how the case would go, because the Judge 
appeared to be a firm man, and to be consistent he must be in favor of 
the plaintiff again. What, then, would be his astonishment to see that 
tlie Judge in that case had gone over to the side of the defendant '( After 
witnessing a week's proceedings he might exclaim, " Was there ever such 
a floater as this Judge?" He might not be able to see, that the Judge 
was all the while, pursuing the direct line of truth. 

If, when you happen to be on the jury, a man should sa>' to you, "Sir, 
last court you decided a case in my favor, and as you are a firm and con- 
sistent man, I know j'ou'll decide in my favor at this term," you might 
reply, "It is true that I did find in your favor in that land suit, but the 
issue is now quite a different one in the horse stealing case, with which 
you are now charged." And yet, gentlemen, it is precisely by such argu- 
ment as this, that the ])resent Republican leaders seek to induce you to 
stand by that party. They say yon voted with us formerly, and that 
you must do it again, or be inconsistent. You may reply to them that 
you formerly voted with them for reconsti'uction perhaps, but that there 
is a very difi'erent issue now to be decided, and that is whether the coun- 
try is to be ruined by their oppression and robberies. 

As patriots and true friends of your country, it is now your duty to 
remove from office, those who abuse the trust you have given them. 

Instead of makii^g any fair or manful defence, they seek to divert your 
minds from the true issue and excite your prejudices by referring to past 
events, that in fact, have no connection with the present. The man who, 
when you are moving forward, tries to make you look backward all the 
while, wishes you to fall in the ])it he has dug for you. If it were not 
for feelings and prejudice growing out of events long since passed by, 
the people would with one voice demand a change. Of course I except 
the officeholders who wish to get a living at your expense. 

When travelling on a steamboat along a river, I have observed that 
occasionally, a heavy weight on rollers is moved from one side of the boat 
to the other. The movement of this mass changes the direction of the 
vessel, so that it does not run on a quicksand, or against dangerous rocks 
and, in fact, it regulates the steamer and directs it safely on its course. 
In like manner, when the men of intelligence and public spirit change 
their position, they carry weight with them, and regulate properly the 
action of the government, and the country is saved from danger. 

Let us then, fellow-citizens, discard all past prejudices, and by common 
consent move forward to reform the government. We can thus restore 
prosperity to the people, and show to all the world, that we are capable 
of maintaining in its purity, the free system, which we have inherited from 
glorious ancestors. 



(613) 



Modes of Public Speaking. 

With respect to speech makii)g in general, it may not be out of pLace to 
say tliis much. Mr. Fox is re})orted to have remarked once, that if a speech 
read well, we might depend on it, that it was a bad speech when delivered, 
and if on the contrary, it were a good speech as delivered, then it would 
read badly. This remark is not, however, universally true, for there are 
many exceptions to its accuracy. Nevertheless, it must be admitted, that in 
a majority of cases, to a certain extent, it may be acce})ted. Or it mav be 
said, with more ]tropriety perhaps, that the style of speaking directly to' an 
audience, is so different from the usual style of the mere essayist, that the 
distinction between them is veiy striking. 

Fre(piently in sj^eaking, something is gained for the moment, by a little 
dwelling on a thought, which requires the use of a word or two, that in print, 
appear unnecessai'v. But on the other hand, it more frequently occurs that 
fewer words aiv needed by the speaker, his gesture, look, and tone, assisting 
to make a strong impression. During the first years of my service in Con- 
gress, there was no verbal reporting, Init only a synopsis of a speech, taken 
down by a ready- writer. The speaker then might have the use of these 
notes, to assist him in writing out his speech, for publication. One or two 
weeks thus elapsed before the speech appeared in print. It may be remem- 
bered, that on one occasion, when Mr. Clay complained that General Jackson 
had not sent in a veto message to a bill, which had passed about the last day 
of the session, Mr. Benton said, that this demand was unreasonable, because 
it required senators, with the aid of reporters, two or three weeks to prepare 
their OAvn speeches for the press. As to Mr. Benton's method, he instead of 
denying his dependance on preparation, as many vain and insincere men do, 
I'ather plumed himself on his labor. Mr. Mangum, who always remained on 
good terms with him, told me that Mr. Benton said, that his practice was 
to write his speech out fully, and then re-write and condense it as much as 
})ossible, and after its delivery, give it to the reporters with the understand- 
ing that they might add, if necessary to it, before it went to press. 

I always found that I could get along while speaking with fewer words 
usually, than when I attempted to exj)i'ess the same thoughts in writing. One 
of my earlier speeches was published in the Intelligencer more than a week 
after its delivery. On the day of its ap])earance, Mr. Barnard, a member fi'om 
New York, said to me, " I wish you to exj)lain this to me. When I saw your 
speech this morning, it occupied so much space in the paper, that T supposed 
you had added greatly to it, but on reading it over, I could find nothing that 
you had not, while speaking, distinctly stated." In my practice I have fre- 
quently found that I could easily throw into the words of a single sentence, 
thoughts that if written out, would require two or three sentences to present 
them clearly, and in a proper ordei". 

On my complaining one day to Mr. Gales of the delay then required in 
getting speeches out, on account of the imperfect system of reporting at that 
time, he said, " If you will write out the report of your speech, and on its 
delivery, hand it to me, T will insert it at once." In some instances I tried the 
experiment, with advantage as far as the publication was concerned. But on 
the other hand, it was rather prejudicial to the delivery, not only becaxise the 
freshness and animation of the first utterance of the thoughts was somewhat 
diminished, but also because it was a disadvantage, if any of the particular 
words written should be remembered while I was speaking. Hence, if at any 



(614) 

time I tried this mode, with a view of getting a neat and accurate report, I 
avoided re-reading what was verbally prepared, and endeavored to let it pass 
out of the mind, so that I might, as much as possible, speak from the impulse 
of the time, untramraeled by memory. On the contrary, if one is merely 
rehearsing Avhat he has verbally prepared, it is difficult for him to speak with 
the animation and force of a natural speaker. 

Persons wishing to compare the two modes in the same speaker, may see 
the difference exemplified in this volume. The speech on the tariff, delivered 
on the 21st of August, 1852, in the House, appears as reported by the 
stenographers, while that in the Senate of February 10, 1859, on the same 
subject, has the marks of wiitten construction in its sentences. Again, the 
speech of February 5, 1857, had verbal preparation, while that on the same 
subject, delivered May 5, 1858, went the same evening to the press, as 
reported by the stenographers. 

The speech of January 16, 1860, was carefully prepared for publication, 
while that of May 7th and 8th, 1860, appears, as taken down by the reporters. 
These examples are sufficient to illustrate the differences betAveen speeches 
as written, and as spoken. 



Mode of Electing a President. 



AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

City of Washington, Feb. 22, 1877. 

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in 
Congress assembled : 

Gentlemen : As a citizen and one of your constituents, 1 avail my- 
self of the privilege of addressing you directly, on a subject of great 
public interest. You have recently, in your places as Senators and 
Representatives, been much and earnestly occupied with the considera- 
tion of the best mode of amending the Constitution, so as to improve the 
administration of the Government. 

Even if j^on do not concur in the opinions I may express, yet the 
suggestions made may not be without value, as while combatting error, 
we often arrive at the truth. 

The evils resulting from the present mode of choosing a President of 
the United States are too well known to you to render it necessary, that 
they should be recapitulated. With a view ot averting them, it has been 
proposed to extend the term of the President to six years. 

It is respectfully submitted that this would merely aggravate the mis- 
chief of the present mode. It is the magnitude of the interests involved 
that causes the danger, rather than tlie frequency of the elections. After 
a contest has been decided, we often hear those disappointed say that 
four years will soon roll round, and then they hope for a better result. 
If a President were elected for life, in a close contest there would prob- 



(615) 

ably be civil war, such as resulted in Poland when a kinjr was chosen. 
By extending the leng^th of the term, the excitement growing out of the 
struggle is increased, and all the mischiefs are aggravated. 

It lias struck me that the true remedy will be found, in providing that 
the President shall be annually elected, as the Horn an Consuls were. 
But it may be suggested that the country might thus be kept in a state 
of perpetual excitement. 

To prevent this, the electoral college ought to be rendered a permanent 
body, after such a fashion as this: In each of the States let there be 
provided, of contiguous territory, as many electoral districts as the 
States are severally entitled to choose electors, and then provide that 
each of these districts shall elect one elector, who shall hold office for 
life. In addition to such qualifications as are necessary to constitute a 
Senator, let it be required, that each elector shall be of not less than fifty 
years of age, and that his acceptance of the office shall discjualify him 
from holding any other office, or ])lace of trust. Federal or State, dm-ing 
his term as elector, and for two years after his resignation, if he should 
choose to shorten his life tenure by resigning. Should an elector die or 
resign, then the Governor of the State might be authorized to order an 
election to fill the vacancy. 

These electors should be required to meet in the early part of Decem- 
ber in each year, at the Capitol, and then in open session, by a viva voce 
vote, elect a President and Vice President. Should they fail to elect 
within one week by a majority vote, then let it be provided that the 
])erson who during their voting, first obtained a plurality, should be the 
President. The knowledge of this regulation would insure that during 
the week, they would select some person by a majority vote. 

If the election were conducted in this mode, there would be little 
room for fraud or mistake. When, however, the two houses of Congress 
■.r.ight meet to ascertain the vote, and pronounce the result, as they should 
be required to do in January, if they were to disagree on any point, 
that disagreement might be referred to the Supreme Ccniit, to be decided 
in rel)ruary. If this plan were adopted, it is not likely that there 
would be a contested election in a thousand years. At the end of one 
week's session the college of electors should be dissolved, and the mem- 
bers, after receiving such compensation in the form of mileage, as the 
law might provide, would return to private life until the next year. 

The President tiius elected should hold the office for one year, and be 
forever afterward ineligible. Ilis ]iowers and duties might remain as 
they now are, except that while he should retain the right to appoint his 
Cabinet, he ought to be allowed only to appoint officers to fill such 
vacancies as might occur, during his term of office. The terms of all the 
executive officers should be fixed by law for periods, say, of four, six or 
eight years, or longer, as might be deemed advisable l)y Congress. Each 
President should have the riglit to fill all such vacancies as might occur, 
while he was in office, and Congress, in the first instance, should so ])ro- 
vide that only a portion of the officers might go out in each year. In 
addition to this, the President should be authorized to remove for cause 
assigned by him, unless the Senate should dissent from the act. The 
heads of departments might, in like manner, be authorized to remove 
their subordinates for cause, with a right of appeal on the part of these 



(616) 

subordinates to such a reviewing board, as might be provided by law. 
These provisions wouhl be necessary to prevent causeless removals. 

The plan as a whole will be better understood, if we consider some of 
the objections likely to be urged against it. 

In the first ])lace it may be said that this scheme, if carried into opera- 
tion, would deprive the people of the right to elect a President. 

This objection will, on a moment's reflection, be found rather one in 
seeming, than in reality. As things are now managed, the people are 
compelled to decide merely with reference to the merits of two or three 
individuals, whose names are presented by so-called national conventions. 

For the last thirty years, with the single exception of those held 
during the war in 1864:, I have attended one of those conventions that 
have been called together every fourth year, and, therefore, I liave 
acquired some knowledge in relation to the management of such bodies. 
The result of their operations has usually depended upon the move- 
ments of less than half a dozen skillful individuals, rather than the 
wishes of a majority of the parties they have professed to represent. 

To illustrate this position, I will present a single case. In the Demo- 
cratic convention which assembled at Baltimore, in the year 1844, there 
was a protracted struggle between the friends, and opponents of Mr. Van 
Buren. Owing to an equal division of the districts represented, the vote 
of North Carolina was for a time, not cast. Louis D. Henry, with half 
the delegates, was for the renomination of Mr. Van Buren, while Romu- 
lus M. Saunders headed the opposition to him. While the struggle was 
in progress, Saunders received a letter informing him, that at a meeting 
in Cleveland county, at whicJi only about half a dozen persons were pre- 
sent, he had been authorized, as their proxy, to cast their vote. Cleve- 
land was a small county in the ninth congressional district, which I then 
was representing in Congress. As no other county had taken any action. 
Judge Saunders claimed the riglit to represent the district and cast its 
vote. This claim was allowed, the vote of North Carolina was, as a 
whole, cast for Mr. Polk, and his nomination was thus secured. It is 
nevertheless true that the persons in Cleveland who had authorized Judge 
Saunders to cast their vote, were themselves strongly in favor of the 
renomination of Mr. Van Buren. Judge Saunders, however, having a 
dislike to Mr. Van Buren for personal reasons, chose to represent himself, 
rather than those who had constituted him their agent. But that little 
Cleveland meeting defeated Mr. Van Buren certainly, and probably Mr. 
Clay also. 

Instead of delegates to conventions, appointed by meetings, in which 
a few persons onh' participate, the electors chosen in the manner I pro- 
prose, would be elected after a full notice, as provided by law, and prob- 
ably with such a canvass as would make each one generally known to 
his constituents. In that case he would be more likely to represent the 
views of the people, than do the present delegates. Under such a sys- 
tem Mr. Clay would have been more likely to be chosen than Mr. Polk, 
while Mr. Webster, perhaps, would have been taken rather than Frank- 
lin Pierce. It might be expected that such persons, as would then be the 
electors, would look over the Union for prominent statesmen. 

A second objection to the plan I propose might, perhaps, be, that these 
electors would constitute an oligarchy. Were they to remain in session 



(617) 

for a long period, and be invested with any continuous ])owers, some 
apprehension might possibly be felt; but, in fact, at the end of a single 
week, they would, as a body, be dissolved, and would separate until called 
together in the succeeding year. They would have no more control over 
the President they had chosen, than the Roman cardinals have over the 
Pope they have once elected, or than the President now has over the 
judges of the Supreme Court, after they have once been placed on the 
bench for life. 

It may be said, however, that if Presidents are elected annually, the 
policy of the Government will be iluctuating. For the last twenty-five 
years, Andrew Johnson was the only President who professed to have a 
policy, and he had probably less direct influence on the action of the 
Government, than any of his predecessors. 

Even President Grant's St. Domingo scheme met, perliaps, with less 
favor, than if it had been brought forward by some influential Senator. 

The policy of the British Government is well settled, and yet for a 
century it has not materially depended on the views of the reigning sov- 
ereign. In like manner the policy of the United Stales has not, to any 
very great extent, been influenced by the views of the Presidents. The 
discussions in the two houses of Congress, in the press, and by speakers 
and writers throughout the country, give shape to our policy. With our 
railroads and telegraphs, the opinion of the country can bo ascertained, 
concentrated, and brought to bear on the Government, with almost as 
much facility as could the views of the Roman people be ascertained in 
their forum, or of the Athenians in their assemblies. 

It is, however, sometimes said that party divisions are essential to 
insure a proper examination of questions of policy. This seems to me 
a mistake. Discussion is undoubtedly necessary to promote a wise de- 
cision, but this will be more instructive, in the absence of liigh party 
excitement. During General Washington's administration there were 
no well defined party lines, yet public questions were sufliciently dis- 
cussed at that time. From the accession of Mr. Jeflerson, in 1801, to 
that of Mr. Adams, in 1825, with the exception of the effort made by 
the Federalists during the war, against Mr. Madison, there was scarcely 
a weH^-marked party line of division. Yet measures v^^ere thoroughly 
discussed and examined. Mr. Clay's speech on the Seminole war, Mr, 
Webster's on Foote's resolution, and Mr. Calhoun's speeches on the cur^ 
rency, are far more instructive than Ogle's speech on Yan Buren's gold 
spoons, which had so great a run in the Harrison contest. The ordinary 
campaign speech abounds frequently in such coarse images, and appeals 
to the lower passions, that few gentlemen would recommend them as 
models for the study of students. 

There would be under this system, a far better opportunity aflbrded to 
the States, to obtain good government. The choice of the Governor in 
Oregon, for example, would not then depend upon the question, as to 
whether the friends of Tilden or Hayes could throw the largest amouijt 
of money, and send the greatest number of speakers, to influence the 
October elections of Indiana and Ohio. We chose a superintendent of 
of public instruction in North Carolina, not from any examination of 
the merits of the candidates, but solely on the consideration as to 
whether Tilden or Hayes, was the most suitable person to be elected 
78 



(618) 

President of the United States, Such a proceeding is scarcely less 
absurd than it would be to say, that the size of the boot a man was to 
wear should not be determined by the dimensions of his foot, but rather 
upon the question as to whether Boston or Fashion had made the quick- 
est time in a four-mile race. If the States were kept out of the great 
current of Federal politics, they would make their selections of officers, 
as they ought to do, turn on questions of State interest and the fitness 
of the candidates. 

The electors under this mode would usually be eminent persons, who 
have retired from politics, or other prominent citizens. As they would 
consist of more than three hundred in number, and be separated over a 
territory of many thousand miles, they would not be at all likely to be 
carried by sudden impulses. Still more difficult would it be to influence 
such a body by bribery or other undue means. In fact, no elector has 
hitherto, in a single instance, failed to discharge the duty required of 
him, precisely in the manner he was expected to do. They would almost 
inevitably choose men of eminence. As the President would hold only 
for a single year, and possess little patronage, there would be no ade- 
quate inducement for a number of partisans to co-operate, to influence 
the choice of the electors. We should be freed from the practice of 
taxing officeholders, nor would " the custom-house gang," as Mr, Gree- 
ley called them, abandon their public duties to go up to State conven- 
tions. 

Again, as the presidential term would endure but a single year, Judges 
of the Supreme Court, and prominent army officers would not be willing 
to surrender their positions for so short a term in the Presidency. Nor 
would Senators, or distinguished members of the House, be willing to 
give up their terms for a single year's service in the Cabinet. In fact 
the presidential power and influence would not override the Govern- 
ment, as it now does, and disturb the movements of the co-ordinate 
branches. If the planet Jupiter were to so increase in bulk, as to dis- 
tract the motions of Mars and Saturn on either side of him, the true 
remedy would be, to i-educe the old heathen to his original dimensions, 
so that he could not longer do mischief to his neighbors. If this were 
accomplished the President would, as the Constitution intended him to 
be, again become merely the person to execute the laws and exercise 
. such powers as have been devolved on him. He might then discharge 
the duties of his office, as quietly as the Supreme Court does the func- 
tions assigned to its department, or as the President of the Swiss Re- 
public performs his duties. 

No real objection can exist to allowing the inferior executive officers 
to hold their places for specified terms. In the States it is not found, 
that any mischief arises from permitting their ti'easurers, clerks, and 
other officers to hold for specified terms ; and with the right in the Presi 
dent and heads of departments to remove for cause, the system would 
work just as well under the I ederal Government. 

If the electors were chosen from persons above fifty years of age, it is 
probable that, from natural cause, at least half of them would go out in 
ten years ; and even if at the first election there should chance to be some 
party preponderance it would, by the coming in quietly of twenty or 
thirty new electors in each year, soon cease to exist. After the decen- 



( 619 ) 

nial enumeration and a new apportionment, it might be provided that, 
in States having a surplus, vacancies arising by death should not be tilled, 
except to keep up the proper number, or the excess in a State might be 
dropped by lot. 

Under this system there would be no national party conventions, nor 
a struggle between the office-holders and office-seekers. The first class 
would not be taxed to help the party, nor would the second make vol- 
untary contributions to assist in agitating the popular mind. But as the 
countr}^ was, for more than forty years, well governed without such insti- 
tutions, they might well be dispensed with. Even as late as the 20th 
of March, 1841, Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, by direction of 
President Harrison, issued a circular to the officers, informing them that 
"partizan efibrts, or the payment of money by way of contribution, or 
assessment for party purposes, would be regarded as a cause for removal." 

Can civil service reform be effected under the present system ? Will 
not things probably become worse rather than better? 

It has even sometimes been asserted that the President, to secure the 
co-operation of Senators, agrees to divide the exercise of the appointing 
power with them. If so, this seems to be a plain violation of the Con- 
stitution, for it is evident that this instrument intended that the Presi- 
dent, and the Senate should decide inde]>endently of each other. It is 
clear that the Senate was expected to act, when necessary, as a check on 
the President, just as in treasuries and in banks, it is usual, for safety 
in disbursements of money, to provide that the concurrence of several 
persons shall be required. By such practices as this, and by his control 
over the officers of the Government as of late manifested, it is evident 
that a President may exercise such influence as to absorb powers that 
ought to belong to the other departments, and in fact disturb the equi- 
librium of the Constitution. 

While considering this great subject, I ask you to recur to what was 
probably familiar to your minds in your college days — the discussions of 
Polybius on topics connected with the rise, progress, and decline of gov- 
ernments. His concise passages with respect to governments in gen- 
eral, his analysis of the Roman Government, then in its most perfect 
condition, and his comparison of that and the Carthagenian Government, 
present pregnant suggestions of a great thinker. 

The Anglo-Saxon race has ever shown great vitality, and remarkable 
powers of recuperation. It was able to shake off the des])otism of the 
Tudor monarchs, and exhibited still higher ]X)wers, in recovering from 
the corruptions of the period of Charles II. In like manner our coun- 
trymen, if properly aided l)y the prominent men, will strike off the evil 
influences, that seem to endanger the existence of our free institutions. 
Why should we not return to the economy, simplicity, aiul purity of the 
earlier administrations ? 

Several prominent gentlemen of both houses of Congress, to whom I 
have explained the above suggested plan, admitted that it would answer 
the purposes intended, and relieve us from the threatening dangers, but 
expressed doubt as to whether the peo])le could be induced to sanction 
it. But what our countrjmien generally desire is good government. In 
my own experience, I have invariably observed, that if sound views were 
fairly presented to the people, they were ready to accept them, rather 



(620) 

than the opposite ones. It is the mere demagogue, who distrusts the 
intelligence and honesty of the people, and who resorts to what he 
deems, cunning stratagems to secure their support. Should you present 
a fair and just plan, which carried on its face evidence, that it was cal- 
culated to perfect our administrative system, the people will cordially 
join you in giving it effect. In fact, under this mode, the election of a 
President would be removed from the people no further, than that of the 
Senator now is, for the people elect the members of the Legislature, and 
those members themselves choose the Senators. In like manner the 
people would elect the electors, who would choose the President, and 
with this difference, too, that, while the Senator holds for six years, the 
PresideJit would be chosen only for a single year. At least, while con- 
sidering these suggestions, you may possibly be aided in finding some- 
thing better, as a remedy. If the presidential term were extended to 
two years, under this plan, to correspond with each Congress, it might 
be an improvement on the present system, provided that the terms of 
theinfei'ior officers were so extended, as to prevent the President's having 
patronage enough to render the choice a question of sufficient magnitude, 
to agitate the country. But if President's are annually chosen, there 
can can be no doubt but that, with our large and increasing population, 
the country will furnish a sufficient number of prominent gentlemen to 
satisfy the demands of the Government. 

Under a system through which, the several departments might, with- 
out interference with each other's duties, work harmoniously together, 
and so act as not to disturb the po})ular mind by violent agitations, there 
would seem to be no reason why, wise administration and public virtue, 
should not be maintained, for an indefinite period, in the future ages yet 
to 1)6 passed, in the development of a prosperous, and enlightened 
humanity. Yerv respectfully, &c., 

T. L. CLINGMAN. 



A JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE 
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN ACCORDANCE 
WITH THE PLAN ABOVE RECOMMENDED. 

Resolved^ By the Senate and House of Representatives, of the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses 
concurring,) that the following article be proposed to the Legislatures 
of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures 
shall be valid, as a part of the Constitutian, namely : 

ARTICLE XVI. 

Section L Each of the States shall by the Legislature thereof, be 
divided into a number of electoral districts, composed of contiguous 
territor\', equal to the whole number of presidential electors to which 
such State is entitled under the existing apportionment. 



(621) 

Sec. 2. On the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which 
shall next occur after the ratification of this amendment, provided 
such day shall not be less than six months after said ratification, but 
if the said day shall occur within six months after the said ratification, 
then on the next succeeding Tuesday after the first Monday in Novem- 
ber, there shall be held throughout the United States, an election in 
each one of the said districts, on which day the qualified voters in 
each one of the said districts, shall elect one elector, to be chosen in 
the same manner in which members of the House of Representatives 
are chosen. 

Sec. 3. Each one of the electors thus chosen shall, in addition to 
the qualification necessary to constitute a Senator of the United States, 
be of not less than fifty years of age, and shall at the time of his elec- 
tion be a resident of the said district. 

Sec. 4. The acceptance of the office of elector shall immediately 
thereon, disqualify the said elector, and render him incapable of hold- 
ing any other office, or place of trust, or profit, under the State, or 
under the United States, or any department thereof, while holding 
said position of elector, and within two years after he may have resigned 
said position as elector. 

Sec. 5. 'i'he said elector shall be entitled to hold his office of elector 
during his natural life, but it may be terminated by his resignation, 
his ceasing to be a citizen of the State, for which he has been chosen, 
or by his having been convicted of a high crime, or misdemeanor, on an 
impeachment by the Legislature of his State, or by his having been 
convicted of receiving a bribe, in a court of the United States, of com- 
petent jurisdiction, to be provided by law, on which conviction as 
aforesaid, in addition to removal from office, he may be condemned to 
suffer such other punishment, as the Congress may deem best calcula- 
ted to deter others from the commission of the like crime. 

Sec. 6. Should a vacancy occur in any electoral district in any mode, 
then it shall be the duty of the Governor of that State, forthwith to 
order an election by proclamation, for the qualified voters in the said 
district to choose in the manner provided by law, an elector who shall 
when thus chosen, succeed to all the rights, and be subject to the disa- 
bilities of his predecessor. 

■ Sec. 7. After each decennial apportionment, should a State be found 
to posses a greater number of electors than such State is entitled to 
under the new enumeration, then one or more of the surplus electors 
shall be removed by lot, or in such manner as Congress may provide. 
Sec. 8. The electors thus chosen shall, on the first Wednesday m 
December in each and every year, assemble in the City of Washington 
at twelve o'clock, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, and as 
soon as a quorum, to consist of a majority of all elected, shall be found 
present, they may proceed to choose a presiding officer and Secretary, 
and such other officers, as they may deem necessary for the convenient 
dispatch of business, and decide on the qualification of their members, 
whose right to seats shaW, j^nma facie, be determined by certificates of 
election from the Governors of the several States. 



(622) 

Sec. 9, They shall then, in open session, by a viva voce vote of each 
elector present, proceed to elect, by a majority vote, a President, and 
Vice-President of the United States. If within six days from the time 
of their organization, Sunday excepted, they shall have failed to choose 
a President by the vote of a majority, then the person who in the vot- 
ings, first obtained a plurality over his competitors, shall be the Presi- 
dent elect. The Vice-President shall be chosen in like manner. 

Sec. 10. At the termination of the six days' session or sooner, if 
the election shall have been consummated, the college of electors shall 
be dissolved, until the period arrives for it to assemble in the succeed- 
ing year. As a compensation the members shall receive such mileage 
pay as may be provided by law, with a per diem allowance ef4ual to 
the pay of a member of Congress for the like period, calculated ^>/'o rata, 
on his annual salary. 

Sec. 11. The said electoral college shall, before it dissolves its ses- 
sion, prepare three certificates of its action, to be signed by its President 
and Secretary, and sealed and endorsed in presence of the college, by 
the signature of the President and Secretary, one of which certificates 
shall be sent to the President of the Senate, one to the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and a third to the Secretary of State. 

Sec. 12. On the second Wednesday in January next ensuing, the 
two Houses of Congress shall assemble in joint session, both certificates 
shall be opened by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of tlie 
House, and with the concurrence of a majority of each House, the 
result of the vote shall be proclaimed by the President of the Senate. 

Sec. 13. Should the two Houses differ as to the result, then it shall 
be the duty of the President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House 
to certify the point or points of diff'erence to the Supreme Court, which 
Court shall, in open session, on or before the first Wednesday in Febru- 
ary, by the concurrence of a majority of its members, proclaim their 
decision. 

Sec. 14. The person who may be proclaimed President thus, by the 
decision of the two Houses, or by the Supreme Court, shall, on the 
fourth day of March next ensuing, be inaugarated as President, unless 
said day should prove to be Sunday, in which event the inauguration 
shall take place on Monday, the fifth day of March, and the term of 
the preceding President shall be extended for a single day only, so 
that no inturegnum may occur, but the President, holding prior to 
said fifth day of March, shall, in no event, continue in office after that 
day. 

Sec. 15. The President, thus chosen and inaugurated, shall hold 
the office of President for one year only, and no person who has once 
held the office, or exercised the duties thereof, shall ever again, during 
his natural life, be eligible to the position, or capable of exercising the 
office a second time. 

Sec. 16. The President shall be authorized to appoint, by and with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, the members of his Cabinet as 
heretofore exercised, but he shall possess the right as to all other offi- 
cers, only to appoint in like manner, persons to fill such offices as may 
become vacant during his term of office. He shall be authorized, 



( 623 ) 

however, to remove any officer, he may deem dishonest, or incompetent, 
or negligent, and should the public exigency in his opinion require 
it, may temporily authorize some other person to perform the duties 
of the office. He shall thereupon, report the case to the Senate with a 
statement of his reasons for the removal, and unless the Senate shall 
express its dissent at the session to which the said communication is 
made, the removal of said officer shall be absolute, and the person 
substituted may remain in office, unless the Senate shall, by its action, 
object thereto, in which event, it shall be the duty of the President to 
send into the Senate, a second nomination to fill the place. 

Sec. 17. The heads of departments shall, in like manner, possess 
the right to remove for cause, such officers as are, or may, by law, be 
appointed to subordinate positions by them, but the officers thus 
removed for cause, may have the right to appeal to such reviewing 
board, as Congress may constitute, and in the event of a decision in 
favor of such officer, he shall be reinstated in the office, and any person 
temporarily filling the same, shall be discharged. 

Sec. 18. It shall be the duty of Congress to designate the length of 
the terms for which, all officers may be appointed, except the members 
of the President's cabinet, and such officers as have their terms already 
fixed by the Constitution. 

Sec. 19. It shall be the duty of Congress, while fixing the terms of 
the different classes of officers, to so arrange them, that a certain pro- 
portion of them shall go out in each year, so that each President shall 
possess the right only, to reappoint, or substitute others therefor, of a 
number not greater, than the proportion or ratio which, one year shall 
bear, to the numl3er of years constituting the term of that class of 
officers. 

Sec. 20. No Senator shall recommend to the President, or to any 
head of department, the appointment of any person for office, or take 
any other action therein, except to confirm, or reject such persons, as 
may be recommended to the Senate by the President, for appointment. 

Sec. 21. Should a vacancy occur in the office of President at any 
time, or exist, from any cause whatever, then such vacancy, in addi- 
tion to the modes of filling the same, already provided, may be filled 
in such manner as may be provided by law. 

Sec. 22. Congress shall have power to enforce the provisions of this 
article by appropriate legislation, so as, in all respects, to give the 
utmost precision, accuracy and efficiency, to all parts of the same. 



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